An appeals court declined to revive billionaire Leon Black’s racketeering suit alleging a conspiracy to destroy his reputation by his Apollo Global Management Inc. co-founder Josh Harris and ex-model Guzel Ganieva.
(Bloomberg) — An appeals court declined to revive billionaire Leon Black’s racketeering suit alleging a conspiracy to destroy his reputation by his Apollo Global Management Inc. co-founder Josh Harris and ex-model Guzel Ganieva.
The federal appeals court in Manhattan on Thursday said it wouldn’t overturn a lower-court ruling in June that found racketeering claims by Black “glaringly deficient.” It upheld the decision by US District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who threw out the case and ruled that Black wouldn’t be able to fix it in an amended complaint.
“These allegations regarding Ganieva’s relationship with Harris are conclusory, vague, indirect, clever and cute,” Engelmayer had said in his 63-page opinion. “They are not factual, specific, declarative or trustworthy.”
A three-judge panel of the appeals court let his decision stand, ruling that Black had failed to show any abuse of discretion by Engelmayer.
A spokesman for Black had no immediate comment on Thursday’s ruling.
Read More: Leon Black’s Conspiracy Suit Tossed as ‘Glaringly Deficient’
Ganieva’s initial allegations of sexual assault, which were first revealed in tweets in March 2021 and which Black has denied, followed reports of Black’s payments of $158 million to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for tax advice and financial services. That led to a set of back-and-forth legal claims between Ganieva and Black, who presided over alternative asset manager Apollo for decades.
Black, 71, claimed Harris, Ganieva and public relations executive Steven Rubenstein all violated civil racketeering laws by conspiring to destroy him personally and professionally. He alleged they sought to do so by wresting control of Apollo from him. Engelmayer threw out the case against all the defendants, including Rubenstein.
Black also accused the three, along with Ganieva’s lawyers at Wigdor LLP, of defamation, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. He later dropped the claims against the Wigdor firm.
The case is Black v. Ganieva, 22-1524, 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals (Manhattan).
–With assistance from Chris Dolmetsch.
(Updates with details of case starting in second paragraph.)
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