Russell Simmons sues ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons; claims she committed fraud and stole stocks

Hip Hop business mogul Russell Simmons has recently filed a lawsuit against his ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons, and her husband Tim Leissner. In the complaint filed earlier this week, Russell alleges that the couple stole almost 4 million shares of the energy drink company Celsius from him.

He alleges that Kimora Lee Simmons and Leissner did this in order to help pay off Leissner’s legal and bail fees from a 2018 money laundering case; a case in which Leissner pleaded guilty. In the resolution of that case, Leissner was ordered to pay $43.7 million to avoid prison time. 

Included in the lawsuit is a past letter sent from Russell to Kimora, an attempt he claims was made to settle the dispute out of court. In the letter, Russell allegedly wrote: 

Throughout my entire decades-long partnership with you I’ve done everything and anything to protect and promote our family. I have never said no to any request and have always gone against my own council to offer up much more than any judge would ever require of me in order to keep the peace. I am shocked and saddened to see how your side has behaved in response to my repeated attempts to get an agreement from you to rightfully and legally reaffirm my 50% of the Celsius shares which have been locked up with the government after being used for your husband’s bail money.

According to People’s Magazine, Russell desires that Kimora Simmons and Tim Leissner “pay money and punitive damages, and that the couple return the nearly 4 million shares of Celsius and that they pay attorney legal fees.”

This past Friday, Kimora responded to the complaint via her legal team, in a statement to People’s Magazine:

Kimora and her children are shocked by the extortive harassment coming from her ex-husband, Russell Simmons, who has decided to sue her for shares and dividends of Celsius stock in which Kimora and Tim Leissner invested millions of dollars. This is an ill-advised attempt by Russell to use the legal system to access funds he is in no way entitled to, and which his own legal team confirms Russell did not pay for.

The statement ended with:  

We will confront his baseless claims that he is warranted Celsius stock dividends despite his self-admitted zero contribution. This extortion attempt is especially egregious given that Russell remains contractually in debt to Kimora for millions of dollars in unpaid business loans. Our team is actively working to put a firm end to his harassment, which continues despite Russell having fled the country – he will face his own reckoning in the US court.

Russell Simmons and Kimora Lee Simmons were legally married from 1998 to 2009, and have two children together. The pair continued as business partners even after the divorce, with Kimora eventually marrying Leissner in 2013. 

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Kyle-Michael Rose

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