Ex-Bucks owner Marc Lasry subject of sexual misconduct suit
May 9 - Former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry was hit by a countersuit seeking $100 million on Thursday from an ex-employee who maintains the billionaire subjected her to years of sexual harassment and a smear campaign.
Gina Strum, an attorney and executive, filed the suit in New York Supreme Court, with Lasry's Avenue Capital Group and its co-founder, Sonia Gardner (Lasry's sister), also named as defendants.
Strum maintains that "Lasry exploited his position as CEO of Avenue Capital to manipulate, harass, and retaliate against Strum after she refused his advances and reported misconduct."
The countersuit states that "Lasry engaged in a pattern of grooming and predatory behavior, using his authority, personal disclosures, and emotional manipulation to erode professional boundaries and cultivate inappropriate dependence. Strum asserts claims for, among others, sexual harassment, sexual assault, defamation, retaliation, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud."
In October, Lasry, Avenue Capital and Gardner sued Strum, accusing her of using harassment and blackmail in an attempt to gain $50 million. Strum denied the allegations.
An Avenue Capital spokesperson told Business Insider: "Ms. Strum's allegations are completely false and represent her further attempt to malign the reputations of Mr. Lasry, Ms. Gardner, and Avenue for financial gain."
Richard Roth, Strum's attorney and managing partner of The Roth Law Firm, said Thursday in a statement, "The complaint describes a disturbing pattern of physical and emotional misconduct. It asserts that Mr. Lasry exploited years of personal disclosures about his wife and daughters to foster an inappropriate emotional attachment, blurring professional boundaries and positioning Ms. Strum as an emotional surrogate.
"According to the complaint, this manipulation escalated into unwanted touching and ultimately a quid pro quo sexual harassment dynamic -- where Ms. Strum's professional opportunities and financial future were conditioned on tolerating Lasry's personal demands, misconduct, and predatory behavior. The complaint states that Ms. Strum reasonably believed that accepting his pressure to join Avenue internally would inevitably require her to submit to physical sexual demands."
Lasry, 65, was part of the Bucks' ownership group from 2014-2023. Earlier this week, Sportico reported that Lasry and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan are working to purchase a stake in the New York Giants.
--Field Level Media
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
17 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
How an unassuming local pizza shop run by female chef was named one of top pizzarias in the world
A Bay Area woman-owned pizzeria known for its New York-style slices has officially been ranked as one of the top pizza shops in the world. Laura Meyer, the owner of Pizzeria da Laura, in Berkley, California, was ranked 96 on this year's Best Pizza Awards list - which features chefs from around the globe. Meyer has already established herself in the culinary realm by becoming the first American and woman to win the World Pizza Championships in 2013. She began her pizza-making career in 2006 at Pyzano's Pizzeria in the Gold State's Castro Valley. She worked under acclaimed restaurateur Tony Gemignani, who co-owned Pyzano's, since she was a teenager. 'He taught me how to make pizza as well as how to throw, and is still my boss/mentor to this day,' Meyer wrote in her World Pizza Champions profile. She studied abroad in Italy during college, which deepened her love for the culinary arts. Meyer continued pursuing pizza after she graduated - earning several accolades along the way. By 2023, she finally opened her own restaurant - which sees herds of loyal customers each day. 'It's something that's very personal to me,' the pizza chef told SFGate when Pizzeria da Laura first opened. 'This is my life. This is my career. This is pretty much me in pizzeria form. To name it after myself was important because I'm very proud of it.' Of the 100 culinary experts ranked in this year's competition, only 10 women, including Meyers, made the list. This year's Best Pizza Awards rankings was determined by a voting panel of more than 500 pizza experts from 60 different countries. The third annual awards ceremony was hosted in Milan on June 25. 'The Best Pizza Awards is not just another ranking,' the organization explained on its website. 'It's the only accreditation platform that stays true to culinary standards, free from commercial agendas.' The awards were founded in 2023 to 'preserve the integrity of pizza accreditation' and mirror The Best Chef Awards, another global culinary ranking. Gemignani has been the only other chef from the Bay Area to earn a slot on the best pizza roster - ranking in 2023 and 2024, according to SFGate. But this year, he did not secure a place. Meyer is a three-time world pizza champion who specializes in New York and pan style pies, according to her Instagram bio. Pizzeria da Laura's mouthwatering menu includes four pizza styles - New York, Sicilian, Detroit and Grandma - to match any food-lovers' preference. New York style mimics the Big Apple's classic thin-crusted circle pie, while Sicilian pizza has a thick and fluffy focaccia-lie crust. Detroit deep-dish pizza is known for being the perfect combination of doughy, chewy and crisp, while Grandma pies are thin pan-baked pizzas that have East Coast roots. Meyer offers 13 set topping combinations, but customers can also pick their own variety. Aside from pizza, the restaurant serves homemade pasta, calzones and delicious appetizers such as arancini, which are rice balls.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Trump's tariffs reality check stuns reporter...as expert admits president's economic plan outsmarted everyone
Donald Trump has defended his aggressive trade tariffs, saying America would be in 'terrible shape' and 'like this innocent lamb being led to slaughter' without them. The president left Fox News reporter Maria Bartiromo looking shocked as he went on to say, 'it's the way the world works, it's a nasty world' during his Sunday morning interview with the network. 'We're doing well on the tariff litigation,' Trump said, referring to an ongoing court battle over his Liberation Day tariffs on imports from most US trading partners. 'If some judge said we can't do tariffs, we would fall prey to the rest of the world who would do tariffs and are doing tariffs on us. 'If we couldn't fight them back with tariffs, this country would be in terrible shape. We would be like this innocent lamb being led to slaughter. 'So we're doing great on economics, we're doing great on tariffs. Tariffs is just a part of it.' It comes as top economist Torsten Sløk recently admitted that he thinks Trump, 79, 'outsmarted all of us' with his economic policies - though experts said this statement should be taken with a grain of salt. Earlier this year, Sløk, who is the chief economist at Apollo Global Management, warned that Trump's tariffs would be 'painful' and economically destabilizing. But this week, he changed his tune by reframing the President's policy as a clever long-game - one which invites global negotiation while increasing federal revenue. In the note, Sløk outlined a potential scenario: the White House could maintain its current tariff rates - 10 percent on most imports, 30 percent on Chinese goods - and give trade partners a year to negotiate with the White House. Extending the current 90-day pause on new tariffs, he argued, would give American companies time to plan ahead and could help stabilize markets. 'This would seem like a victory for the world and yet would produce $400 billion of annual revenue for US taxpayers,' he added. The timing is key. Trump's 90-day pause on new tariffs, announced in April, is set to expire on July 9. Without an extension, the tariffs would immediately increase, with billions of dollars worth of products suddenly incurring more taxes. But if the President extends the pause but keeps tariffs where they are, Sløk says the policy could offer clarity for companies and leverage in negotiations. Trump's Liberation Day tariffs placed a levy on imports from most US trading partners, along with a separate set of tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico. It marked his most sweeping tariff to date amid the trade war he launched during the first months of his return to the White House in 2025. An appeals court has allowed the tariffs to remain in place for now, while judges review a lower-court decision blocking them on the grounds that he exceeded his authority by imposing them. The Federal Circuit is set to rule on whether the tariffs are permissible under an emergency economic powers act that Trump cited to justify them by July 31. The tariffs, used by Trump as negotiating leverage with US trading partners, and their sporadic nature, have shocked markets and whipsawed companies of all sizes as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. The ruling has no impact on other tariffs levied under more traditional legal authority, such as duties on steel and aluminum imports. A three-judge panel of the US Court of International Trade ruled on May 28 that the US Constitution gave Congress, not the president, the power to levy taxes and tariffs. They said the president had exceeded his authority by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law intended to address 'unusual and extraordinary' threats during national emergencies. The Trump administration quickly appealed the ruling, and the Federal Circuit in Washington put the lower court decision the next day while it considered whether to impose a longer-term pause.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
US-Canada trade talks stopped until certain taxes dropped, Trump tells Fox News
WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - U.S. trade talks with Canada will be stopped "until such time as they drop certain taxes," President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast on Sunday. Trump made the remarks in an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" program.
