Guess clothing line co-founder Paul Marciano sued prominent victims’ rights attorney Lisa Bloom on Monday in a Los Angeles court, claiming that she extorted him with rape allegations that her ex-client admitted were “false.”
“The Bloom Defendants’ practice is to target well known individuals and public companies with accusations of improper behavior, typically under the guise of a purported sexual harassment claim, and threaten to make those accusations public. Whether the accusation is true or not does not matter,” Marciano’s attorney Gary Jay Kaufman wrote in a 27-page complaint. “What matters is making the target pay up.”
“His Strongarm Tactics Do Not Work”
Marciano’s lawsuit claims that threatened litigation accusing him of sexual misconduct forced him to “play an extortive game of Russian Roulette,” one in which he says he ultimately folded through a settlement that explicitly denied rape allegations contained in a draft complaint.
“Extortion can exist even when the information threatened to be made public is, in fact, true,” the lawsuit states. “But in this case, the Bloom Defendants threatened to publicize despicable accusations that they knew were utterly false.” (Emphasis in original)
In an email, Bloom characterized Marciano’s lawsuit as blowback for her efforts holding the powerful to account.
“Over twenty women have accused Paul Marciano of sexual harassment and sexual assault (most of whom I did not represent), according to Guess’ own records,” Bloom told...
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