(Bloomberg) -- Lawyers for billionaire Leon Black and a former model he says is trying to destroy his reputation see little chance of settling her claims that he defamed and sexually assaulted her.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer asked the seven lawyers present in a New York courtroom Thursday about the prospects for settlement.
“Raise your hand if anyone would give an answer other than ‘slim to none,'” the judge said. No hands were raised.
Black, the co-founder of Apollo Global Management Inc., sued Guzel Ganieva and her lawyers, Wigdor LLP, last year after she sued him for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, gender-motivated violence and retaliation. Black claims Ganieva, Apollo co-founder Josh Harris and Apollo's outside public relations adviser violated civil racketeering laws by conspiring to destroy him personally and professionally. Black claims the Wigdor firm spread false information about him. Harris has denied the claims.
Black's lawyer, Susan Estrich, filed a letter with the federal judge overseeing Black's case Wednesday, claiming her team had received WhatsApp messages between Ganieva and a New York Times reporter showing she was working with her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, months before Ganieva officially retained him.
Jeanne Christensen, a Wigdor partner, rejected that argument. She said the text messages, which were turned over as part of the discovery process, don't support Black's claims.
“For now, Black's billions have bought him access to our court system in a way that most people do not have,” Christensen said in a statement. “But money cannot buy facts. We look forward to the day when the facts deflate Black's false RICO conspiracy balloon, and we then amend Ms. Ganieva's state court complaint to include the horrific retaliation Black has engaged in through this frivolous federal action.”
Engelmeyer on Thursday granted a request by Ganieva and the other defendants to delay pre-trial evidence gathering until he rules on their motions to dismiss the case.
Black and Ganieva are locked in an escalating series of back-and-forth legal claims. Black has stepped down as chairman and chief executive officer of Apollo and receded from roles including chairman of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Ganieva's initial allegations of sexual assault, first revealed in Tweets in mid-March of last year, followed reports of Black's larger-than-expected payments for tax advice and financial services to disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein totaling $158 million.
Black has accused Ganieva of extortion and denied the allegation that he sexually assaulted her. He instead characterized their relationship as a consensual affair, which started in 2008 and ended around 2014.
As part of his lawsuit, Black has also accused Apollo co-founder Josh Harris of organizing a coup to overthrow him. Black said that Harris worked with Ganieva “to assassinate his character and extort even more from him,” Black wrote in a filing earlier this year.
Harris has denied the allegation, and his attorneys have said that Black's legal actions against his former colleague reflect a “badly misguided effort to blame Josh Harris for problems that are of Black's own making.”
The lawyers met with the judge Thursday to begin planning the course of the litigation and discuss pre-trial evidence gathering.
The case is Black v. Ganieva, 21-cv-8824, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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