Billionaire businessman Marc Lasry has launched a blistering lawsuit against a former employee claiming she subjected him to a yearslong campaign of harassment.
Lasry, 65, the CEO of investment firm Avenue Capital and former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, claims one of his former managing directors, Gina Strum, threatened to extort him for $50 million.
His lawsuit alleges that Strum threatened to spread false information about him and make it ‘really, really, really ugly’ for his firm unless she was paid off, all while she allegedly sent him a series of bizarre and flirtatious texts.
According to Lasry, these texts included pictures of Strum in low-cut tops, telling him ‘My life doesn’t really work without you. Stop punishing me’; and ‘You are a lovebug to me.’
‘And one more thought- if I had to go through therapy and all this s*** just to talk to you. You could at least kiss me. We would know everything then,’ another text from the lawsuit read.
Marc Lasry, 65, the CEO of investment firm Avenue Capital and former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, has launched a blistering lawsuit against a former employee claiming she subjected him to a yearslong campaign of harassment
Gina Strum, a former managing director at Lasry’s Avenue Capital, allegedly sent the CEO a wave of inappropriate messages, including calling him her ‘lovebug’
According to Strum’s LinkedIn profile, she worked as a managing director at Avenue Capital from 2009 to 2017, however it is unclear when Lasry says the alleged harassment began.
But Lasry said the executive’s antics escalated over several years, including sending him images of herself and texts that his lawsuit described as ‘personal, obsessive, and simply inappropriate.’
The complaint alleged that Strum would tell Lasry, who has a net worth of approximately $1.9 billion, that he was ‘cute’ and compliment his appearance, and told him one of his black turtleneck sweaters had her ‘sweating.’
She also kept updating Lasry when she went to the doctor to be checked out for ‘Girly bits’, according to the reported lawsuit.
Lasry maintains that he rebuffed Strum’s advances, and when she told him she was ‘def lonely and flirting with you’, he claims he responded that he would be her friend but ‘it can never be more than that.’
The complaint says Strum escalated until she threatened to make explosive allegations against Lasry and Avenue Capital.
Lawyers for Strum say the exchanges escalated to the point where Avenue admitted it would be better to pay Strum a settlement in 2013 rather than take the risk of her allegations being made public.
Strum, who has denied Lasry’s claims, allegedly told Lasry his turtleneck sweaters had her ‘sweating’ and when she went to the doctor to be checked out for ‘Girly bits’, according to the reported lawsuit
Strum reportedly received a severance package, but Avenue agreed to continue working with her in a consultancy role as part of their agreement, ‘rather than face undue fallout from a public report of false accusations’, the firm said.
The new lawsuit claims that they ‘suffered through Ms. Strum’s conduct because they concluded that, if they did not, she would carry out her malicious threats to damage them.’
Over the next few years, Strum would withdraw her threats when she was ‘given attention and paid money’, but would then ‘renew her threats and malicious behavior’ if that stopped, reports Fortune.
In 2019, Strum landed a lucrative consulting deal with Avenue for $750,000. The firm continued making installments of the payment until earlier this year, when she ‘renewed her extortionate threats’, the complaint said.
Lasry is seeking unspecified damages as he claims Strum’s antics hurt his business relationships, alongside seeking to prohibit her from any further contact with him or those involved
Strum then allegedly demanded $50 million and threatened to file a harassment lawsuit against Lasry, sending him another text reading: ‘This is gonna be a movie – how one woman stood up to abuse and collapsed one of the biggest shops on the street.’
Lasry’s lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages as he claims Strum’s antics hurt his business relationships, alongside seeking to prohibit her from any further contact with him or those involved.
An attorney for Strum, Daniel Kaiser, told Bloomberg that she denies the allegations against her and claimed Lasry was ‘retaliating’ against her.
Kaiser branded it ‘blatantly fabricated and retaliatory,’ and ‘a continuation of his attempt to control and harass Ms. Strum.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .