Russell Simmons, who is currently negotiating multiple sexual assault cases, claims he chose to live in Bali out of his own free will and not because he wanted to avoid legal consequences in the United States.
In an interview with AllHipHop’s Chuck Creekmur published on Friday (May 24), the Def Jam Recordings co-founder explained his decision to move overseas in recent years.
“People say I’m always at home and somehow can’t get home, and that gets to you,” the 66-year-old said. “After a while, I get tired of hearing the same narrative over and over again, and that’s wrong. . I’m always in Los Angeles, I’m always in New York and Miami. I’ve never had any reason to feel unsafe in America.
Simmons filed a statement on Wednesday (May 22) in which he said: “I am not physically in New York and have no intention of living in New York in the future. I have no property in the United States. I have lived in New York since 2018 Bali is also where I plan to stay.
“I lived in California for at least nine years before I moved to Bali. As a California resident, I paid California resident tax for the years before moving to Bali. Currently, I pay California non-resident state tax. Tax.
Earlier this year, the businessman was again accused of sexual assault.
In mid-February, a woman who served as a top executive at Def Jam in the 1990s sued the mogul for sexual harassment and rape. The lawsuit, filed by Jane Doe in New York federal court, alleges false imprisonment, battery, emotional distress and violations of the state’s gender-based violence law.
The accuser claims the Queens native invited her to his apartment to work, though he soon began wrestling with her, “trying to be funny,” and then roughly pinning her to the bed.
“Multiple Sclerosis. Doe repeatedly asked Mr. Simmons to leave her, but he refused,” court documents state. “Mr. Simmons began raping her.
Thereafter, the hip-hop businessman allegedly continued to torture his employees in the workplace despite others telling him to stop, eventually forcing her to resign in 1997.
“He would sit on her desk, lean over her and aggressively invade her personal space while making sexual innuendos, suggestions and advances and rubbing the front of his pants,” the documents read. “Mr. .Simmons would follow Ms. Doe to the door or block her path to prevent her from opening it again.
In a statement shared with HipHopDX, plaintiffs’ attorney Kenya K. Davis said: “As detailed in the complaint, our client was pursuing his career ambitions as a Def Jam executive. , was sexually assaulted and harassed by her boss, Russell Simmons.
“She was proud of her contribution to the emerging music genre of hip-hop, but her hard work and music career were disrupted and derailed by Mr. Simmons, a wealthy and powerful celebrity whose Wealth and influence allowed his abusive behavior to go unchallenged. Today, Jane Noname is a successful writer and producer in the entertainment industry, and her ordeal with Simmons mirrors that of many of the other women he preyed on over the decades. Experience echoes.
Just last year, Simmons acknowledged that he had not been a gentleman in the past while flatly denying sexually assaulting anyone, despite several women accusing him of it in the past.
“I took nine polygraph tests, but people don’t know that,” he said in an interview with Graham Bensinger. “Nine separate ones – seven from the president of the Polygraph Association. One for each, serious accusation.
He added: “Each test takes three hours and is conducted by two polygraph examiners – one that I have never done on anyone and one that I have never done on everyone. of.
“Some say they’re not accurate, but they’re 94 percent accurate. I did nine of them, and obviously I don’t believe it. I even asked, ‘Well, what if I believe it, but it’s not true?’ “Your subconscious will get a hold of you,” he said. ” I don’t know how true that is, but that’s what the president of the Polygraph Association told me.
Segment features CBS roundtable interviews with Drew Dixon, Alexia Norton Jones and Sil Lai Abrams ), which aired in January 2020.
In the clip, they take turns sharing graphic details of Simmons’ alleged attack, with Jones saying he allegedly “threw [her] Right on the fucking wall,” Dixon claims he “showed up naked, wearing a condom, and pushed me onto his bed, and I screamed, fought, and refused.
