Russell Simmons has been blindsided by service of process in two different lawsuits, with a process server tracking him down in Indonesia to serve him in both a defamation suit and a sexual assault lawsuit.
According to court documents obtained by HipHopDX, Simmons was originally served on March 5, but the affidavits of service were filed on Friday (March 22). In both cases, Daniel Ayoub served Simmons at the Gdas Bali Health & Wellness Spa, and the embattled mogul was none-too-pleased about the turn of events.
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“Ah shit, fuck,” Simmons said.
Ayoub went on to say that Simmons then got on the phone with someone who appeared to be his attorney. “South African guy just handed me an envelope. And he’s with a big Black guy,” he said on the phone. “Should I open the doc now, or wait til later? How did these people get in here?”
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Ayoub confirmed that he’d served Simmons from “the state of New York,” referring to the defamation suit, which was filed in New York Supreme Court by Drew Dixon. Dixon, a former Def Jam employee, had previously accused Simmons of sexual assault in the On the Record documentary in 2020.
Her current suit stems from comments Simmons made on the In Depth with Graham Besinger podcast in December, 2023 — comments where he allegedly, according to Dixon’s suit, “continued a concerted and malicious campaign to discredit Ms. Dixon and to so damage her reputation that Ms. Dixon’s factual reporting of what he did to her would not be credited.”
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Check out the paperwork, including a detailed recounting of Ayoub’s trip, below.
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) March 26, 2024
Russell Simmons shocked by service in defamation suit: "How did these people get in here?" pic.twitter.com/M2nqHDpojK
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) March 26, 2024
Ayoub also served Russell Simmons in the pending sexual assault lawsuit filed in federal court by a Jane Doe, who was a former employee at his label, and who first filed the suit in February.
Filed under Jane Doe in New York federal court, the lawsuit alleges false imprisonment, battery, emotional distress and a violation of the state’s gender-motivated violence law.
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The plaintiff claims that the Queens native invited her to his apartment for work, though he started wrestling with her “in an attempt to appear playful” soon after and then pinned her down on a bed aggressively.
“Ms. Doe repeatedly told Mr. Simmons to get off of her, but he refused,” court documents state. “Mr. Simmons proceeded to rape her.”
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Following that, the Hip Hop businessman allegedly continued to torment his employee at the workplace despite others telling him to stop, ultimately forcing her to resign in 1997.
“He would sit on her desk, lean over her, aggressively invading her personal space while making sexual innuendos, suggestions, and advances, and rubbing the front of his pants,” the paperwork reads. “Mr. Simmons would follow Ms. Doe to the door or block her path to prevent her from opening it again.”
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In a statement shared with HipHopDX, the plaintiff’s attorney Kenya K. Davis shared: “As detailed in the complaint, our client was sexually assaulted and harassed by her boss, Russell Simmons, while pursuing her professional ambitions as an executive at Def Jam.
“She was proud of her contributions to the burgeoning musical genre of Hip Hop, but her hard work and her career in music was disrupted and derailed by Mr. Simmons, a rich and powerful celebrity whose wealth and influence allowed his abusive behavior to go unchallenged for decades. Now a successful writer and producer in the entertainment industry, Jane Doe’s traumatic experiences with Simmons echo those of so many other women who he has preyed upon for decades.”
