Tag: sued

  • Hip hop star Megan Thee Stallion sued for harassment by cameraman

    Hip hop star Megan Thee Stallion sued for harassment by cameraman

    Megan Thee Stallion forced her cameraman to watch her having sex in a moving car, according to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles. Emilio Garcia says the incident, which happened on the Spanish holiday island of Ibiza, was part of a campaign of harassment that also included fat-shaming him.

    “Emilio should never have been put in a position of having to be in the vehicle with her while she had sex with another woman,” said Garcia’s lawyer Ron Zambrano. “‘Inappropriate’ is putting it lightly. Exposing this behaviour to employees is definitely illegal.”

    The suit alleges the incident took place in June of 2022 when Garcia, who worked as a personal photographer to the star, was on tour with her.

    “Plaintiff could not get out of the car as it was both moving and he was in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country,” says the suit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. “Plaintiff was embarrassed, mortified and offended throughout the whole ordeal.”

    The Hot Girl Summer artist told Garcia not to talk about what he had seen, says the suit, which also claims she would tell him he was fat and ate too much.

    Garcia’s suit says the 29-year-old star began employing him in 2018, but classified him as an independent contractor, rather than an employee. That meant he was not eligible for benefits such as health care or overtime pay, which could have run into the six figures. The suit claims Garcia was contracted to work eight-hour days, but was required to take calls from Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, outside those times and to perform other tasks without being given proper breaks.

    The suit, which alleges retaliation and multiple state Labour Code violations names as defendants Megan Thee Stallion, Megan Thee Stallion Entertainment, Inc., Hot Girl Touring LLC, and Roc Nation. Garcia is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

    “Megan just needs to pay our client what he’s due, own up to her behaviour and quit this sort of sexual harassment and fat shaming conduct,” said Zambrano.

    Entertainment outlet Page Six cited Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyer Alex Spiro as denying the allegations. “This is an employment claim for money — with no sexual harassment claim filed and with salacious accusations to attempt to embarrass her,” the lawyer told the outlet. “We will deal with this in court.”

    Last year, Canadian rapper Tory Lanez was jailed for 10 years in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the feet during a drunken argument after a Hollywood party.

  • Musk sued for stock manipulation during Twitter takeover bid

    Musk sued for stock manipulation during Twitter takeover bid

    The most controversial billionaire Elon Musk has been sued by Twitter Inc shareholders, who claim he manipulated the company’s stock price downward, as the CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Inc mounts a $44 billion buyout offer for the social media platform.

    According to the investors, Musk saved $156 million by failing to disclose that he had acquired more than 5 per cent of Twitter by March 14. They requested class certification and an unknown amount of punitive and compensatory damages.

    They also named Twitter as a defendant, claiming the company owed them an investigation into Musk’s behaviour, though they are not seeking monetary damages from the company.

    As per the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in San Francisco federal court, the investors claimed Musk continued to buy stock after that and eventually disclosed in early April that he owned 9.2 per cent of the company.

    “By delaying his disclosure of his Twitter stake, Musk engaged in market manipulation and purchased Twitter stock at an artificially low price,” the investors, led by Virginia resident William Heresniak, claimed. Requests for comment were not immediately returned by Musk or his lawyer.

    The recent drop in Tesla’s stock has put Musk’s ability to finance his acquisition of Twitter in “major jeopardy,” according to the investors, because he has pledged his shares as collateral to secure the loans he needs to buy the company.

    Tesla’s stock was trading around $713 per share on Thursday afternoon, down from over $1,000 in early April. According to the Wall Street Journal, the timing of Musk’s disclosure of his stake has already triggered an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

    The SEC demands any investor who purchases more than 5% of a company’s stock to disclose their assets within 10 days of crossing the limit.

    The investors also claimed that Musk’s public criticism of the company, such as a May 13 tweet stating that the buyout was “temporarily on hold” until Twitter proved that spam bots accounted for less than 5% of its users, amounted to an attempt to drive the share price even lower.

    Musk pledged an additional $6.25 billion in equity financing to fund his bid for Twitter on Wednesday, indicating that he is still working to close the deal.

    Earlier this month, the tech mogul was sued in Delaware Chancery Court by a Florida pension fund, which sought to halt the transaction on the grounds that some other large Twitter shareholders were supporting the buyout, which is a violation of Delaware law. The lawsuit filed by Heresniak does not seek to halt the takeover.