Billionaire businessman Marc Lasry has filed a tough lawsuit against a former employee, alleging she subjected him to a years-long campaign of harassment.
Lasry, 65, CEO of the investment firm Avenue Capital and former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, claims that one of his former general managers, Gina Strum, threatened to extort him for $50 million.
Her lawsuit alleges that Strum threatened to spread false information about him and make him “very, very, very ugly” to her company unless she got paid, all while she allegedly sent him a series of strange and flirtatious text messages.
According to Lasry, these texts included photographs of Strum wearing low-cut tops, telling her: “My life doesn’t really work without you.” Stop punishing me’; and ‘You’re a love bug to me.’
‘And one more thought: if I had to go through therapy and all this shit just to talk to you. You could at least kiss me. Then we would know everything,” said another text of the lawsuit.
Marc Lasry, 65, CEO of investment firm Avenue Capital and former co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, filed a blistering lawsuit against a former employee alleging she subjected him to a years-long campaign of harassment.
Gina Strum, former CEO of Lasry’s Avenue Capital, allegedly sent the CEO a wave of inappropriate messages, including calling him her “sweetheart.”
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 pictures of herself and text messages that her lawsuit described as “personal, obsessive and simply inappropriate.”
The complaint alleged that Strum told Lasry, who has a net worth of about $1.9 billion, that he was “cute” and complimented his appearance, and told him that one of his black turtleneck sweaters made her “sweat.”
He also continued to update Lasry when she went to the doctor to be checked for ‘female parts,’ according to the lawsuit.
Lasry maintains that she rejected Strum’s advances, and when she told him she was “definitely lonely and flirting with you,” she claims he responded that he would be her friend, but “it can never be more than that.”
The complaint says Strum escalated until he threatened to make explosive accusations against Lasry and Avenue Capital.
Strum’s lawyers say the exchanges escalated to the point where Avenue admitted it would be better to pay Strum a settlement in 2013 rather than risk having his allegations become public.
Strum, who has denied Lasry’s claims, allegedly told Lasry that her turtlenecks made her “sweat” and when she went to the doctor to have her checked for “girl parts,” according to the reported lawsuit.
Strum reportedly received a severance package, but Avenue agreed to continue working with her in a consulting role as part of their deal, “rather than face undue consequences from a public reporting of false allegations,” the firm said.
The new lawsuit claims that they “suffered from Ms. Strum’s conduct because they concluded that if they did not do so, she would carry out her malicious threats to harm them.”
Over the next few years, Strum would withdraw his threats when “they paid attention to him and paid him money,” but would then “renew his threats and malicious behavior” if that stopped, he reports. Fortune.
In 2019, Strum landed a lucrative $750,000 consulting deal with Avenue. The company continued to pay in installments until earlier this year, when it “renewed its extortion threats,” according to the complaint.
Lasry is seeking unspecified damages as he claims Strum’s antics damaged his business relationships, as well as seeking to bar him 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 her another text message that read, “This is going to be a movie: How a woman stood up to abuse and tore down one of the stores.” biggest on the street.
Lasry’s suit seeks unspecified damages, claiming that Strum’s antics damaged his business relationships, as well as seeking to bar him from any further contact with him or those involved.
A lawyer for Strum, Daniel Kaiser, told Bloomberg that she denies the allegations against her and claimed that Lasry was “retaliating” against her.
Kaiser called it “blatantly fabricated and retaliatory” and “a continuation of his attempt to control and harass Ms. Strum.”