Over the past few days music mogul Russell Simmons has been in a bitter war of words with his ex-wife Kimore Lee Simmons, and his daughter Aoki Simmons.
There’s a lot of talk on social media surrounding what is going on. Well Media Take Out has some insider insight on what the feud is really about … and it’s all about MONEY!!!
Three years ago, Russell Simmons came under immense pressure, after multiple women came forward with unproven allegations of s*xual violence against Russell Simmons. The music mogul has not been charged with any crime, nor has he been found liable in court for any alleged abuse.
But when the allegations first surfaced, Russell began protecting his assets. He sold off most of his businesses, and moved to Bali – to protect his fortune from being taken by any of his alleged victims.
Russell had one investment – however – that he could not easily sell, a $16M investment in Celsius Energy drink. Russell and his ex-wife Kimora, along with other investors put millions of dollars into the energy drink company.
They made the investment through a company called Nu Horizons Ventures in 2015, which Russell helped run.
When the allegations came against Russell, he stepped down from the company, and allowed his longtime partner (and ex-wife) Kimora run the company. Russell and Kimora, despite divorcing, were successfully co-parenting two daughters together, and were close friends and business partners.
He believed he could trust her to run the company. What happened next, depends on who you believe.
The Celsius Energy investment turned into HUGE success. The $16M investment is now worth more than $300M.
Russell believes that a portion of that $300M is his. But Kimora is saying that she (and her estranged husband Tim Lassiter, who was convicted of fraud) are the rightful owners of the investment company.
Russell claimed in a lawsuit that shortly after he stepped down from the company, Kimora transferred 4 million shares of Celsius energy drink into her private account. Those shares were eventually confiscated by the federal government after her husband plead guilty for federal crimes – including defrauding investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
So the investment in Celsius energy is now gone.
Kimora claims that Russell was paid $14M for his investment in the company, and so she owes him nothing.
So in short, Russell believes that Kimora stole as much as $300M from him – after he trusted her to be a steward of his money while he was going through this mess (which may be of his own making).
With that backdrop, Russell has been doing any and everything to try to get his money back. Kimora believes that her ex’s efforts to get his money is him “harassing” her … and their daughters Aoki and Ming is caught up in the middle of it all.
Ming posted a FaceTime video of Russell Simmons yelling at her. While she did not provide the audio, Media take Out did our best to read his lips. He appears to be saying over and over “I’m broke and your mother stole my money.”
And here’s screenshots of texts that Russell sent his daughter Ming:
