Accusers Say Russell Simmons Missed Settlement Deadline After Demand For $100M From HBO
Russell Simmons could have reignited his authorized conflict with HBO by demanding “hundreds of millions” in a public rant, however simply sooner or later later, three girls are asking a New York court docket to power him to pay greater than $3.4 million, they are saying he owes from sexual assault settlements.
In court docket filings submitted this week within the New York Supreme Court, attorneys for Sheri Abernathy, Sil Lai Abrams and Wendy Carolina Franco declare the Def Jam co-founder missed a January 1 deadline to pay out the agreed-upon quantities from confidential settlements signed in October 2025.
Each girl obtained a signed confession of judgment from Simmons, permitting them to pursue bigger quantities if he defaulted.
According to the paperwork, Russell Simmons agreed to pay Abernathy and Abrams $1,162,617.77 every and Franco $512,064.88. Because he allegedly didn’t pay, they’re now searching for elevated “confessed” quantities, together with curiosity and enforcement prices: $1,614,290.74 for Abernathy and Abrams, and $711,000.31 for Franco.
Attorney O. Andrew F. Wilson informed the court docket Simmons didn’t pay “the Settlement Amount, or any portion thereof,” by the deadline. The girls at the moment are pursuing judgments that embody 9 p.c annual curiosity and extra authorized charges.
The lawsuits stem from allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, lots of which have been detailed within the HBO Max documentary On the Record. The movie centered on claims from girls, together with former Def Jam government Drew Dixon, home violence advocate Sil Lai Abrams and screenwriter Jenny Lumet.
Each accused Russell Simmons of rape or coercion in incidents courting again a long time.
Dixon has mentioned Simmons raped her within the Nineteen Nineties whereas she labored for him. Abrams alleged he assaulted her in 1994 at his condo. Lumet mentioned he directed a driver to take her to his house, the place she says she was assaulted and felt unable to depart.
Additional accusations have come from Alexia Norton Jones, Sheri Hines and a number of other unnamed girls.
Separate court docket filings final 12 months from Tina Klein-Baker, Toni Sallie and Norton Jones claimed Simmons owed almost $8 million in earlier settlements, prompting their very own confessions of judgment.
Simmons has constantly denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex and has not admitted wrongdoing in any of the settlements. In previous interviews, he has mentioned he has “never been violent” and claimed to have handed 9 lie-detector assessments.
Now, Simmons is as soon as once more happening the offensive. In a latest Threads put up, he wrote, “HBO you owe me 100s of millions of dollars,” and added that he wants the cash “for all my charities and family members, specifically my children.”
He accused the community of “horrific and malicious” conduct and demanded an “apology and 100 million.”
He additionally inspired the general public to “ask Oprah or anyone who’s ever looked at the evidence,” pointing to affidavits from a former Def Jam president and a former driver that dispute components of Abrams’ and Norton Jones’ accounts.
HBO has maintained its help for the ladies featured within the movie and mentioned it should proceed to defend the documentary and its administrators in court docket.
The community has not publicly responded to Simmons’ newest social media outburst or his demand for extra compensation past the pending $20 million lawsuit.
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