Black says he paid to hide the deal, denies it led to Apollo’s exit

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon / Bloomberg

Leon Black, who abruptly resigned last month as CEO Apollo Global Management Inc., said it has made payments for years to keep a consensual business secret and that allegations about the episode on social media have nothing to do with his departure.

Black, 69, denied the allegations made by Guzel Ganieva on Twitter, who wrote in unseen messages in mid-March: “I have been sexually harassed and abused by him for years” and, in followed, “forced” to sign a non-disclosure agreement in 2015. Black issued a statement after the New York Post reported that at least four members of the Apollo board learned of her tweets until she turned in on March 21, invoking unspecified health problems for him and his wife.

“I had a stupid consensual affair with Mrs. Ganieva that ended more than seven years ago,” Black said in a statement on Thursday. “Any charge of harassment or any other inappropriate behavior by it is completely manufactured. The truth is that I was extorted by Mrs. Ganieva for many years and made substantial monetary payments to her, based on her threats to become public about our relationship, in an attempt to relieve my family of public embarrassment. ”

Black had previously planned to resign by the end of July as CEO of the company he co-founded. He said that, on the advice of his lawyer, he asked the criminal authorities a few weeks ago to investigate Ganieva.

“It’s a personal matter,” he said. “This issue has nothing to do with Apollo or my decision to move away from the company.”

Ganieva, reached by Bloomberg, said in a text message: “I agree with what I said in my tweets from March 17.” She said she would ask other questions to a lawyer.

– With the assistance of Heather Perlberg