Embattled rapper Ye, formerly Kanye West, whose Donda Academy was sued in April for workplace abuse, is facing a series of disturbing new allegations. This time the lawsuit comes from a woman who claims to be his personal assistant.
Lauren Pisciotta, an Instagram and Onlyfans model, said she worked for the “Famous” rap star, 46, from July 2021 to October 2022. She claims she was subjected to multiple forms of sexual harassment and was stripped of a “promised” money of 4 dollars. She is paid millions for her work at various Yeezy brands, according to legal documents reviewed by The Times.
The lawsuit, filed Monday by Pisciotta's attorney in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses his businesses of wrongful termination, gender discrimination, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional and physical stress, among other misconduct.
A legal representative for West told The Times in a statement that the rapper intends to file a countersuit against Pisciotta over his “baseless allegations.” The representative also accused Pisciotta of coercion, blackmail and extortion.
Pisciotta's attorney did not immediately respond to The Times' request for comment.
The complaint describes Pisciotta, 35, as a music industry veteran with more than 15 years of management, A&R and marketing experience. Before accepting a $1 million annual salary to be Ye's full-time personal assistant in July 2021, he worked with the rapper on his Yeezy clothing line and his 2021 album, “Donda.”
Pisciotta's lawsuit accuses Ye of “masturbating in front of Plaintiff” and “oversharing intimate sexual details, photos and videos of sexual acts,” some of which allegedly involve Instagram models and “current and former employees of Yeezy, LLC and several men and women.” .” In November 2022, a Rolling Stone report detailed similar allegations that the Grammy winner had “played pornography to Yeezy staff at meetings.”
The 25-page complaint details multiple alleged instances of “non-consensual, offensive, unwanted, unsolicited and unwelcome illegal acts” by Ye, including explicit text exchanges in which he discusses sexual fantasies and requests that Pisciotta obtain and carry Sexual enhancement drugs for your convenience. In one alleged exchange, Ye messaged Pisciotta to ask if her genitals were “racist.”
“This damn racist of mine…needs to be defeated until he can no longer be racist,” a text from Ye reads, according to the lawsuit. “This is not right brother after 400 years.”
Several pages of the lawsuit also detail sexual memes, photos of naked models, videos of women performing oral sex on Ye and videos of their sexual encounters that the rapper allegedly sent to Pisciotta. The Instagram model also alleges that Ye propositioned her for sex several times during her tenure (she denied his advances), “masturbated” during phone conversations she thought were business calls, and was “particularly obsessed with the penis size” of her current and past romantic partner. partners.
The lawsuit says Pisciotta did not “welcome or encourage” Ye's “offensive, degrading, embarrassing and abusive behavior” and focused on carrying out her duties as a personal assistant in a “most professional manner possible.”
The last part of Pisciotta's lawsuit alleges that employees of Ye's Yeezy brands, who are listed as co-defendants, “engaged in a systematic, severe, persuasive and offensive campaign of unlawful harassment based on [Pisciotta’s] sex, including sexual harassment.”
More than a year after starting as West's personal assistant, in September 2022, Pisciotta was offered a promotion to Yeezy's chief of staff, the lawsuit says. With that title change also came the promise of a $3 million raise, which would bring Pisciotta's total annual salary to $4 million. After accepting the offer, Pisciotta was told in October 2022 that he would receive the $3 million increase in a lump sum, but “defendant, however, failed to pay…as promised” after multiple attempts to collect, he alleges. . In late October, West and his companies fired Pisciotta (the reason was not disclosed in the lawsuit) and offered him a $3 million severance package. They then allegedly “renounced their commitment to pay compensation.”
After parting ways with the Yeezy brands, Pisciotta said West's “obsession” with her persisted and alleged that he moved into the building where she lived. Shortly after her termination, Pisciotta returned to West and her business to provide “additional services,” again with the prospect of receiving payment, but allegedly never received payment.
“As a result of Defendant's breach of the agreements, Plaintiff has suffered damages in the amount of at least $4,000,000,” the lawsuit says.
Pisciotta alleges that because of West and her company's retaliation, she “suffered and continues to suffer harm” in the form of lost wages and employment benefits and emotional and physical distress. The lawsuit says Pisciotta filed a complaint last week with the California Department of Civil Rights accusing Yeezy brands of “discrimination, harassment, retaliation” and other labor violations. She is seeking an unspecified amount of damages, legal fees and “such other additional relief as the court deems appropriate.”
The statement from West's legal representative also accused Pisciotta of stealing the rapper's phone to “destroy phone records” in order to benefit her claims and said she was fired for “not being qualified, demanding unreasonable sums of money (including a salary $4 million annually) and numerous documented incidents of his lewd and deranged conduct.”
The rapper also accused Pisciotta of sending Ye “unsolicited nude images” as sexual coercion to demand material items, including a luxury handbag and a Lamborghini.
“Such behavior is wholly inconsistent with someone claiming to have been sexually harassed or to have experienced a hostile work environment,” the statement continued. “It is evident that Ms. Pisciotta took advantage of her association with Ye and his company, and her proximity to him, to seek material gain, influence and employment through inappropriate means.”
The statement added: “Her initial attempt to file a lawsuit for illegal dismissal gained no media traction, leading her to fabricate headlines following threats of blackmail and extortion.”
The latest of Ye's legal troubles comes after he quickly fell out of public favor in late 2022 for his anti-Semitic rants. Amid his controversial rants, several companies, including agency CAA, Gap and Adidas, cut ties with the rapper.
