Former Avenue Capital employee in legal battle with billionaire boss Marc Lasry claims she was offered $5 million to ‘settle without a lawyer’

• A former Avenue Capital fundraiser claims Marc Lasry offered her a $5 million settlement in May.
• Earlier this month, Lasry filed a lawsuit against Gina Strum, claiming she tried to extort $50 million.

Marc Lasry, co-founder of Billionaire Avenue Capital, offered a former female employee who accused him of years of sexual harassment a $5 million settlement in May, according to new legal filings from Gina Strum’s attorneys.

Strum, a former fundraiser for Avenue who was accused in a civil lawsuit of blackmailing Lasry and Avenue for $50 million, said in her latest legal filings that Lasry “wanted to settle without an attorney” after being presented with the evidence that ultimately turned up in the case was stopped. a lawsuit she filed last week.

Strum’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss Lasry’s original lawsuit, which he filed on Oct. 18. The motion was filed with a memo that included texts between the parties as exhibits to show how Lasry pushed Strum not to involve attorneys on their backs. continue.

“Plaintiff Lasry went so far as to offer to pay Defendant’s attorneys’ fees and mediation costs in exchange for Defendant refraining from filing a lawsuit exposing Plaintiff Lasry’s blatant abuse ” said the filing, which was filed Tuesday in New York state court. , reads.

A statement from Lasry said Strum is “attempting to generate publicity in continuation of her malicious threats.” The statement also said that Avenue “will litigate these matters in the judicial forum and not in the media.”

It’s the latest development in an explosive battle between the high-profile Lasry, the former co-owner of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and a megadonor to Democratic campaigns, and his former employee.

Lasry and Avenue filed first court case against Strum, claiming she was trying to extort $50 million from the company to avoid making things “really ugly.” The lawsuit included texts and emails from Strum that Lasry’s legal team said showed Strum’s obsession with her billionaire boss.

One of the messages reads: “Have you forgotten me? My life doesn’t really work without you. Stop punishing me.”

Days after Lasry filed his suit, Strum responded with her own lawsuit: allege years of sexual harassment and unwanted touching from Lasry. No mention of the $5 million offer was made in her lawsuit, although CK Hoffler, an attorney for Strum, said: “It was important to set the record straight in this case surrounding Marc Lasry’s offer to Gina Strum. “

“He offered that money in an attempt to control the process and ensure her silence,” Hoffler said in a statement.