Lawsuit accuses billionaire Leon Black of raping autistic teenager at Jeffrey Epstein’s townhouse

A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accused Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management, of raping a then-16-year-old girl with autism in 2002 at the Manhattan townhouse of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The lawsuit alleges the unidentified plaintiff had been trafficked to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who in late 2021 was convicted of procuring underage girls for Epstein. The plaintiff, who is now in her late 30s, is described in the legal complaint as being born with mosaic Down syndrome and having a “developmental age” around 12 years old.

An attorney for Black denied the allegations and accused Wigdor LLP, the law firm behind the lawsuit, of pursuing a “vendetta” against the private equity investor through multiple cases — one of which was dismissed in May.

The latest civil lawsuit against Black was filed days after The New York Times reported that he had agreed in January to pay $62.5 million to the U.S. Virgin Islands to settle any potential claims from the territory’s investigation of Epstein.

Earlier Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee unveiled details of its yearlong investigation into Black’s ties to Epstein, including $158 million Black allegedly paid him for tax and estate planning services.

“Today, because of legislative initiatives in NYS granting sexual violence victims the right to file claims previously barred by the statute of limitations, we were able to commence a legal action against Leon Black for harms committed years ago against our client Jane Doe when she was a minor,” Wigdor partner Jeanne Christensen said in a statement.

“This is significant for our client and for all sexual assault survivors. It is an honor to represent Jane Doe and we look forward to proceeding to discovery and trial on Jane Doe’s claims,” Christensen…