A billionaire media mogul with a string of sexual assault judgements in opposition to him has now been ordered to pay $900 million to a former staffer in what’s considered the most important sexual damages award in historical past.
Alkiviades ‘Alki’ David was warned ‘by no means to consider violating one other girl’s physique’ when former manufacturing assistant Mahim Khan gained a $58 million sexual battery judgement in opposition to him in 2019.
However the Hologram USA founder was ordered to pay the record-breaking sum by a LA jury on Monday after it heard he was already raping one other worker.
The court docket was advised that David, 56, had the door to his firm’s human sources division emblazoned with a pornographic picture captioned ‘HER-ASS’, and that employees referred darkly to at least one workplace at his California HQ because the ‘rape room’.
‘This monumental verdict marks a major triumph for justice and units a precedent within the battle in opposition to office sexual assault,’ stated the lady’s lawyer Gary Dordick.
Billionaire media tycoon Alki David has now been ordered to pay practically $1 billion in damages in a string of sexual misconduct lawsuits
He confronted lawsuits from 5 ladies, two of whom settled out of court docket in 2019 alone
David, the inheritor to a worldwide Coca Cola bottling empire, was greatest recognized for his hologram firm which has created 3D animated avatars of lifeless performers together with Tupac and Michael Jackson.
He was accused of inflicting ‘extreme sexual harassment and assault, together with rape’ on the previous mannequin, referred to in court docket as Jane Doe, from February 2016 to April 2019.
Quickly after becoming a member of, a feminine colleague warned her in regards to the ‘alarmingly hostile’ office surroundings reporting that David had forcibly kissed her, the lawsuit claimed.
Weeks later Doe rebuffed his try and kiss her throughout a piece journey to his personal island in Greece, and located herself laid off shortly afterwards.
However in 2018 he was again in contact to supply her a job as model ambassador for his hashish manufacturing firm, Swiss-X.
The swimsuit claimed that after agreeing, he took her again to a lodge room the place he persuaded her to pattern the product earlier than forcing her to the touch his penis whereas he masturbated.
The next April she was known as to a enterprise assembly in a small room the place he raped her in entrance of one among his Doberman pinschers.
‘It is so despicable, the info of this case,’ Dordick stated. ‘He raped my consumer whereas on trial in one other case.’
By then the mogul had already misplaced $80million in a collection of judgements for sexual assaults relationship again to 2014.
He settled two instances out of court docket in 2016 however was ordered to pay $5million to former staffer Lauren Reeves who claimed he put his fingers on her throat and pushed her chair right into a wall.
That case additionally featured references to the ‘rape room’ and her declare that he advised her he wanted to ‘purchase provides’ for it.
Former manufacturing assistant Mahim Khan, pictured proper, with lawyer Gloria Allred, warned him in opposition to ‘violating’ one other girl when she was awarded $58 million in 2019
Staffer Lauren Reeves was awarded $5 million for assault in a case that introduced up the primary point out of David’s company ‘rape room’
His firm owns the Hologram USA Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard the place its 3-D avatars of lifeless performers together with Michael Jackson and Tupac are animated for a paying viewers
David and ex-wife Jennifer Stano arrive for the 9021GO Boutique Grand Opening at 9021GO Boutique in Beverly Hills, California in 2011
In April 2019 he was ordered to pay punitive damages of $8 million to a girl who claimed she was sacked after she refused to have intercourse along with her.
In September that yr the choose declared a mistrial when a jury couldn’t attain settlement on a declare introduced by former FilmOn account government Elizabeth Taylor.
However that December that yr he confronted his greatest penalty but when one other jury awarded $58 million to Khan who was represented in court docket by high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred.
Khan claimed that David had thrust his pelvis into her face and simulated oral intercourse, rubbed her vagina, steadily grabbed her pelvic space, peppered her with undesirable kisses, given her a lap dance in entrance of a consumer, and put his fingers beneath her costume to cup her breasts.
She testified that at instances David would additionally pull his pants down, seize her by the neck and shove her into his crotch.
‘I hope the punitive damages verdict sends a message to Alki David to by no means, ever consider violating one other girl’s physique,’ she stated in an announcement after the trial.
David denied all claims of sexual misconduct, saying, ‘I by no means touched any of those ladies,’ remaining defiant and disruptive all through his a number of 2019 trials in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket.
He steadily erupted in profanity-laced outbursts whereas mocking his accusers and their attorneys, incomes him practically $10,000 in sanctions and elimination from the courtroom on a number of events.
That yr additionally noticed him arrested in St Kitts after he flew in with a reported 5,000 hashish vegetation on his personal airplane.
‘They’ve utterly exhausted me of my money sources,’ David stated of his accusers to The Day by day Beast in 2021.
‘Luckily, I’ve received a terrific mom, God bless her, who’s been very supportive of me.’
The Sunday Instances annual Wealthy Checklist places his present wealth at $3.7 billion, a lot of it deriving from his rich Cypriot household, however David has claimed that media estimates of his fortune are wildly exaggerated.
‘These f***ing idiots,’ he stated. ‘They don’t have anything, nothing in any respect. There are not any billions.’
Alki claimed in 2021 that claims about his wealth have been wildly exaggerated and that his accusers have ‘utterly exhausted me of my money sources’
Lawyer Gary Dordick stated Monday’s ‘monumental verdict marks a major triumph for justice and units a precedent within the battle in opposition to office sexual assault’
Monday’s unanimous verdict, in entrance of Decide Christopher L. Lui, consists of $100 million in compensatory damages and $800 million in punitive damages
‘The importance of this verdict can’t be overstated,’ Dordick stated.
‘Previous to this case, juries had awarded over $80 million in opposition to David for related allegations, highlighting a disturbing sample of abuse and exploitation.
‘This landmark verdict underscores the essential significance of holding perpetrators of sexual assault accountable, no matter their wealth or standing.
‘It not solely delivers justice to Jane Doe but in addition sends a robust message to all victims of sexual assault: your voice issues, and justice is inside attain.’
