Embattled Guess cofounder Paul Marciano is suing a celebrity attorney representing multiple women who accuse him of sexual misconduct.
Marciano, 70, whose worth a reported $388million, has accused Lisa Bloom, the daughter of famed attorney Gloria Allred, of trying to extort him and threatening to publicize a phony rape claim against him unless he agreed to pay a settlement.
The former CEO of the multibillion-dollar clothing empire claims he has a signed affidavit from one of Bloom's clients, stating that she was never raped by him.
Marciano was ousted from his position as CEO of the multibillion-dollar clothing empire in 2018, after the company agreed to pay $500,000 to five models who accused the fashion mogul of misconduct during Guess shoots.
Four of those accusers were represented by Bloom, 60, a self-described 'women's advocate' lawyer who previously served on legal teams tasked with addressing sexual misconduct claims against Bill Cosby and Bill O'Reilly.
Last month, another five unidentified women came forward accusing Marciano of sexual harassment and assault, all represented by Bloom - three of whom have filed lawsuits, and another filing a police report.
The fifth women, an aspiring model who worked for Guess, reported to the company's human resources department last March that she had been sexually harassed by Marciano.
She eventually approached Bloom for representation, and private negotiations between Marciano's attorney and Bloom's legal team ensued.
Paul Marciano, 70, was ousted from his position as CEO of multibillion-dollar clothing empire Guess in 2018, after the company agreed to pay $500,000 to five models who said the fashion mogul harassed them during Guess shoots. He is facing criminal charges for those allegations
However, as discussions ground on, according to Marciano's attorneys, Bloom and other attorneys escalated the severity of the woman’s claims in an attempt to extract money from the mogul and his company.
The lawsuit alleges Bloom's law firm threatened to file criminal charges unless Marciano paid $1.9million to the client, referred to as 'S.S' in the filing - an amount that was decreased to $235,000 after his attorneys rejected the proposal.
Attached to the 'final' demand that Marciano and Guess pay $235,000 to settle the case out of court was a 27-page draft of a complaint Bloom said would be filed in court if attorneys did not play ball, Marciano’s lawyers said.
'In doing so, the Bloom defendants forced the plaintiff to play an extortive game of Russian roulette,' the suit filed Monday in LA County Superior Court, states.
The suit contends that Bloom - who previously served a legal adviser to convicted sex pest Harvey Weinstein - non-consensually and repeatedly inserted the word 'rape' into that claim, against the wishes of the unnamed client, who they say signed an affidavit attesting that fact.
'The client, (hereinafter referred to as “S.S.”) specifically told the Bloom defendants that plaintiff never raped her,' the suit reads, 'but the Bloom defendants paid her no mind. Instead, they told S.S. they would not threaten plaintiff with a rape accusation but did so anyway,' the suit states.
High-profile attorney Lisa Bloom, who represents four of five of the women accusing Marciano of sexual misconduct, was sued Monday by the fashion mogul for extortion, with Marciano claiming she threatened to publicize a phony rape claim against him unless he paid $235,000
Marciano’s lawyers went on to assert that they even have a sworn declaration to stand up those assertions from Bloom's client, who they say was so alarmed by Bloom’s legal tactics that she came forward to his attorneys as a 'whistleblower.'
'This is a case of extortion,' the attorneys wrote in the filing of their allegations against the LA-based lawyer and her team, which they said fit 'a pattern of tortious, deceptive, and otherwise improper behavior by the defendants, attorney Lisa Bloom and her namesake law firm The Bloom Firm.'
'That has been exposed by a former client who had the courage to be a whistleblower to their outrageous conduct The Bloom Defendants have hidden behind their status as lawyers.
'But a bar card is not a license to commit extortion,' the suit asserts.
The woman, who lawyers said was identified in the complaint by her initials, 'does not want women like herself to be manipulated by Lisa Bloom,' Gary Kaufman, one of Marciano’s attorneys, said of the suit, which demands a jury trial.
The behavior from Bloom, Marciano’s lawyers said, aligns with previous strategies employed by the high-powered attorney that saw her air damaging allegations in a lawsuit or news conference with the sole intention of garnering a settlement.
'Whether the accusation is true or not does not matter,' they wrote. 'What matters is making the target pay up.'
In a statement addressing the suit Monday, Marciano's crisis lawyer said that their suit against the Bloom firm 'meticulously details a series of brazen actions orchestrated by Bloom to concoct allegations and extort money from Paul Marciano, including attempts to conceal the shakedown scheme.'
In court papers, Marciano, who retained a board seat after his ousting, said the Bloom Law Firm made the threats knowing the allegations were false, and
