Kimora Lee Simmons-Leissner faced another blow this week in her court battle with ex Russell Simmons, who sued the fashion mogul and her husband, Tim Leissner, alleging they fraudulently sold shares of his stock to help Tim avoid prison time.
A court filing this week obtained by RadarOnline.comrevealed that an appeals judge in Los Angeles denied Kimora and Tim's latest request to strike the fraud claims. The couple argued the record exec's case should be thrown out under California's anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) laws, which protect Californians from lawsuits violating their rights to free speech.
Tim and Kimora argued that Russell's complaint included "mixed causes of action," meaning his claims stemmed from both protected and unprotected activity. Their argument stemmed from two letters in Russell's complaint written by Kimora and Tim regarding the shares and Tim's involvement in the Malaysian wealth fund 1MDB's corruption scandal.
The former Goldman Sachs investment banker pleaded guilty to federal foreign bribery and money laundering conspiracy charges in November 2018 and agreed to pay back $44 million dollars to avoid prison time.
Russell, who was married to Kimora from 1998 to 2009, claimed that in May 2018, Kimora and Tim, "knowing full well that [Tim] would need tens of millions of dollars to avoid jail time, stay out on bail and forfeit monies for victim compensation," allegedly unlawfully took four million shares of his stock in the energy drink company Celsius to pay Tim's legal fees.
The Baby Phat founder filed the lawsuit in 2021, alleging that more than $200 million was disbursed to Tim and another alleged co-conspirator in the 1MDB scheme. His complaint included two letters purportedly written by Kimora and Tim, which Russell claimed were written as part of a "cover-up" by the couple, who allegedly tried to "create a new spin for the conspiracy and fraud they had effectuated."
The letters — dated June 26, 2018, and February 5, 2020 — listed the transfer of the shares as temporary loans to cover Tim's bond, authorized by Tim as a manager of Russell's investment company, Nu Horizons. Russell, however, claimed the letters "do not reflect any legitimate loans but rather are further evidence of [Kimora and Tim's] fraudulent scheme."
Kimora and Tim filed separate motions to strike the complaint under the anti-SLAPP statute, but both motions were denied in 2022 by a trial court.
The couple immediately appealed, but on Wednesday, June 5, Justice Maria Stratton moved to uphold the decision, calling the couple's argument "a stretch."
She wrote on behalf of the appellate court, "We disagree and find that the complaint alleges the two letters are merely incidental to and constitute evidence of the fraud claims. They are not the bases of the causes of action themselves. We affirm the trial court's denial of both anti-SLAPP motions."