Ye sued over sexual harassment from former Yeezy employee

Much of the alleged harassment took place before Ye made anti-Semitic comments in public in late 2022., leading brands like Adidas to abruptly cut ties with the world-famous rapper, formerly known as Kanye West.

Ye’s publicist, Sasha Brookner, sent the Washington Post a lengthy statement denying the claims, which she attributes to a “legal representative” she declined to name. “In response to these baseless allegations, Ye will file a lawsuit against Ms. Pisciotta, who actively pursued him sexually to coerce him into employment and other material benefits, then engaged in blackmail and extortion when his advances were rejected,” the statement said.

Pisciotta’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

In the lawsuit filed Monday in a Los Angeles court, Pisciotta said that around July 2021, she was hired as a 24-hour on-call assistant for the Ye and Yeezy brands at an annual salary of $1 million. At the time, according to the suit, Pisciotta had a social media presence on Instagram and made money on OnlyFans, a website commonly used for amateur pornography and modeling. Pisciotta said she previously worked with Ye on three tracks from his 2021 album, “Donda,” and on Yeezy’s women’s fashion line.

In August 2022, Pisciotta claimed, Ye offered him $1 million to delete his OnlyFans account and asked him to be “like God.” She agreed to do so, but never received the additional money, according to the lawsuit.

After deleting the account, the suit alleges, Pisciotta began receiving expletive-filled text messages, videos and pictures from Ye. In these messages, he discussed his sexual desires and talked about masturbation. She also alleged in the complaint that Ye locked her in a room alone with him on a flight to Paris and that he masturbated under the covers while she sat across from him on a chair.

“The defendant often told the plaintiff that he had always wanted to have sex with her and that he had these feelings for a very long time,” the complaint states. “The accused also falsely bragged about having sexual relations with the complainant or allegedly insinuated to his friends, business partners and music and fashion collaborators that he was having sexual relations with the complainant.” Pisciotta said in the suit that she never had sex with Ye and did not want to. Ye’s representatives, however, allege that Pisciotta sent his boss unsolicited nude photos and offered to have sex with him on his birthday, an offer Ye declined.

In September 2022, Pisciotta said: was promoted to chief of staff for several of Yeezy’s business arms, with an additional $3 million added to her annual salary. But she would never have been paid. About a month later, in October, she was fired from Yeezy and offered a $3 million severance package, according to the lawsuit. She accepted the offer, but said she was never paid, according to the lawsuit.

Ye’s “obsession, fixation and harassment” of Pisciotta allegedly continued after the termination, according to the lawsuit. The “Carnival” singer allegedly moved into the same building as Pisciotta, where the rapper’s “unprofessional and harassing behavior” continued, according to the complaint.

The statement sent by Ye’s publicist offered a very different version of events, saying Pisciotta was fired for incompetence, for demanding a $4 million annual salary and for “numerous documented incidents of her lascivious and unhinged conduct.” . The statement claims she stole Ye’s phone before he was fired in a failed attempt to destroy evidence of his behavior.

This is not the first time Ye has faced employee discontent. Several Yeezy staff members accused the rapper of showing them pornographic material and sexual content, according to a November 2022 report from Rolling Stone. Adidas opened an investigation into employee complaints about Ye’s actions toward them, given that he and Adidas had a business partnership. (Adidas cut ties with Ye and Yeezy in October 2022, after making anti-Semitic remarks. Several other companies, such as Balenciaga and JPMorgan Chase, have done the same.)

Most recently, right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, who was previously Yeezy’s chief of staff, left the company after the two reportedly clashed over “Yeezy Porn” — which was apparently an adult film company that Yeezy was hoping to throw. Ye previously claimed to have an addiction to pornography, which he said was detrimental to his family.