Billionaire Leon Black Allegedly Raped a Woman in Jeffrey Epstein’s Apartment, Court Documents Claim

Court documents filed today allege that billionaire Leon Black, CEO and co-founder of private equity giant Apollo Global Management and former board chairman of the Museum of Modern Art, violently raped a woman at Jeffery Epstein’s New York mansion in 2002. Per Vanity Fair:

“The woman, identified in the documents as “Jane Doe,” says Epstein arranged for her to give a $300 massage to Black when she was a financially struggling single mother living in New Jersey. But instead, she alleges, Black brutally assaulted her shortly after they entered the massage room on the third floor of Epstein’s mansion. A number of weeks later, she claims, Black paid her $5,000 cash to “help with her credit card debt.” The suit says Doe didn’t report the rape at the time because a friend warned her no one would believe her.”

These allegations come as part of a complicated lawsuit filed by Guzel Ganieva, who is suing Black for defamation after Black denied Ganieva’s previous allegations that she had been “sexually harassed and abused” by him. Ganieva’s suit also makes a number of claims about Black’s connections to Epstein:

“It claimed that Black flew Ganieva to Palm Beach to have sex with Epstein in October 2008, when Epstein was serving time in a Florida jail for soliciting sex from a minor. The suit further alleged that Black made frequent comments about Epstein’s sexual depravity, including that Epstein flew “very young girls” aboard his private plane and that Epstein made money because “he takes care of the little girls” and was “doing a great job with it.”

In response to Black’s 72-page refutation of these claims, filed on September 8, Jane Doe’s alleges that Black raped her with an object after she refused to let him perform oral sex. According to Doe, the pain was excruciating and her recovery took weeks. After Black invited her to meet multiple times following the incident, Doe claims, she met him for dinner, at which time Black gave her an envelope containing $5,000.

In addition to these allegations, a recent investigation conducted by Apollo found that Black paid Epstein $158 million for “tax advice” from 2012-2017. However, much like Prince Andrew, Black maintains that he barely knew the guy:

“I was completely unaware of Mr. Epstein’s abhorrent misconduct that came to light in late 2018,” Black said in January, adding: “I did not engage in any wrongdoing or inappropriate conduct.”

Epstein died in police custody in 2019 as he awaited trial for sex trafficking and raping dozens of girls and women.