A former employee of Avenue Capital Group has accused billionaire cofounder Marc Lasry of repeated sexual harassment, including allegedly forcing the employee to kiss and hug him while he touched her breasts and then retaliating against her when she warned the firm about disclosing information to investors.
The suit comes just days after Lasry, Avenue Capital, and cofounder Sonia Gardner sued Gina Strum, accusing her of carrying out a decade-long campaign of harassment and blackmail and then seeking $50 million from the firm. A representative for Strum denied those claims in a statement to Fortune.
According to the countersuit, Lasry and Gardner allegedly retaliated against Strum after she warned that Gardner’s alleged illness and surgery to remove a lung needed to be disclosed to investors. Strum’s suit also named clients and business partners. She claimed attorneys at law firm Alston Bird were alleged witnesses to certain conduct. And, Strum alleged harassment, discrimination, or retaliation by Lasry and Gardner in business ventures involving Calamos Asset Management, the New York City pension funds, and a director in the New York City Comptroller’s office. None are named as defendants. Strum alleged another manager at Avenue Capital, who is unnamed in the suit, spread untruths about her, including that she slept with investors and married men to raise money, slept with Lasry, and was a lesbian, according to the lawsuit.
Strum claimed in her suit that Lasry habitually sexualized the workplace with his comments and would allegedly touch and tickle Strum when she was on the trading floor in front of other employees. She alleged that some of the conduct occurred in front of clients, including one instance of a sexual comment allegedly made in front of an employee of Stepstone, an investment firm with $169 billion in assets under management.
“Lasry made it clear to Strum that he wanted both a romantic and sexual relationship with
her, despite Lasry being married,” the suit alleges.
A representative of Lasry, Gardner, and Avenue Capital provided Fortune with the following statement: “Ms. Strum’s allegations are completely false and represent her further attempt to malign the reputations of Mr. Lasry, Ms. Gardner and Avenue for financial gain. Among Ms. Strum’s most unconscionable claims are her false assertions regarding Ms. Gardner’s health. In reality, Ms. Gardner is completely and demonstrably healthy. Ms. Strum’s desperate attempt to claim that Mr. Lasry acted inappropriately and sexually harassed her are completely not true. These categorically false and vindictive claims by Ms. Strum—and her repeated threats to smear their reputations and maliciously destroy them personally and their business if she was not paid $50 million—are the reasons why Mr. Lasry, Ms. Gardner and Avenue on October 18 filed a lawsuit against her for defamation.”
The statement continued: “They refused to pay her extortionate demands. Her claims filed yesterday include further statements that are defamatory and false. Mr. Lasry, Ms. Gardner, and Avenue will respond to Ms. Strum’s false defamatory statements and defend their reputations to the full extent of the law.”
CK Hoffler, a lawyer representing Strum, told Fortune via a statement: “Gina Strum filed a lawsuit against the defendants that will set the record straight. Without a doubt, we are convinced that Ms. Strum will have her day in court and will be vindicated. Marc Lasry’s allegations are completely false and a weak attempt to shield his reprehensible, illegal and sexually impermissible behavior in the workplace. Marc Lasry’s illegal conduct also extends to retaliation and bad faith negotiations.”
Alston Bird and the New York City Comptroller's office did not immediately respond to Fortune’s requests for comment. Calamos confirmed Calamos Avenue Management, LLC engaged Strum as a consultant between 2019 and 2022 but declined to comment on ongoing litigation. A rep for Stepstone said it had no comment.
According to Strum’s suit, the alleged harassment began the year she was hired in 2009. Strum was allegedly in Lasry’s office, when he supposedly asked: “Are we only going to be friends? Don’t you want to be with me?” Strum alleged she rejected his advance, and that led to “a continuous and ongoing pattern of sexual harassment,” per the suit. The complaint accuses Lasry of following Strum around the office, becoming visibly upset if she was in any other male coworker’s office, intimidating other male employees to stay away from her, and touching her.
However, the earlier suit filed by Lasry alleged that he repeatedly rejected her advances, and that Strum’s behavior was at times allegedly erratic and inappropriate. Lasry’s suit included alleged lines from text messages and emails Strum sent to him over the years that the complaint described as “personal, obsessive, and simply inappropriate.” For instance, Strum allegedly wrote: “U wonder why I love you so much.” And then, “Did you forget about me? My life doesn’t really work without you. Stop punishing me.”
Strum’s suit alleged that Lasry retaliated by taking away business opportunities, including an instance in April 2024, in which Lasry altered the terms of an agreed-upon term sheet for a deal to offer retail mutual funds with exposure to private equity.
Because of the alleged behavior, Strum claims her “reputation was irreparably harmed,” and that she “suffered grievous emotional and financial harm at Lasry’s hands.” This year, according to the countersuit, Strum and Lasry expressed interest in an amicable resolution, after Strum’s counsel sent a letter to his detailing her legal claims.
But “instead of continuing those discussions, as counsel represented would occur, Lasry ran to court to file a frivolous and malicious lawsuit against Strum,” her suit states.
