A former Def Jam employee who says Russell Simmons pulled a “wrestling move” and kidnapped her in his New York apartment in the mid-1990s is asking a judge to reject the hip-hop mogul's claims he can't be sued in federal court in New York because he's now a “stateless” US citizen who's technically “retired” in Indonesia.
“Defendant is running from the court's jurisdiction to avoid taking accountability for his actions,” the Jane Doe plaintiffs says in a new court filing obtained by Rolling Stone. The woman says the court should have “serious doubt” about the “veracity” of Simmons' claims in an Oct. 18 declaration that he sold his last US property in 2021 and now lives fully and legitimately in Bali under a permanent retirement visa granted by Indonesian authorities.
The Doe, who first sued Simmons last February, says the Def Jam founder sat for a “limited” remote deposition in her case on Sept. 26 and admitted he's still actively working and maintains ties to New York. She said he testified that he still pays the lease on a Manhattan apartment for his children and still maintains office space for a company he owns, Russell Simmons TV (RSTV, Inc.), in midtown Manhattan. She claims her investigation “uncovered” that Simmons has an ownership stake in the property.
“He demonstrated that he is building a business empire and needs a partner for his current projects but is thwarted in his active efforts in Dubai and Singapore because of the morality clauses those countries require,” her new filing states. Doe says Simmons' alleged residence in Indonesia, the Gdas Bali Health and Wellness Resort, also is a business that he owns with fellow American investors. She further alleges Simmons still acts as a figurehead of global media company Gushcloud.
“Actively building an empire means that defendant is ineligible for a retirement visa in Indonesia,” Doe and her lawyers wrote in her Nov. 1 filing. “Any purported retirement visa requires recertification every few years that one is, in fact, retired. Building an empire and being retired are mutually exclusive.”
Simmons' lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. In a filing last month, Simmons and his legal team claimed he has been living in Indonesia since 2018. In her Friday filing, Doe included links to alleged evidence that she argued undermine the claim.
She said that as recently as May of this year, Simmons claimed in an interview with AllHipHop that he still considers the US his “home.” Speaking to the hip-hop outlet, Simmons denied speculation that he fled the US amid a wave of sexual abuse allegations and didn't feel free to return. “People saying that I somehow can't come home when I'm there all the time wears on you,” Simmons said in the interview. “It wears on me after a while to keep hearing the same narrative, which is false. I'm always in LA, I'm always in New York and Miami.”
In her pending lawsuit, Doe says she's one of more than 20 women to accuse Simmons of sexual assault or harassment. Simmons denies any wrongdoing and has claimed he passed “nine lie detector tests.”
The judge overseeing the latest lawsuit did not immediately rule on Simmons' request to have the complaint dismissed over his claim the court lacks jurisdiction.
