Russell Simmons may have reignited his legal war with HBO by demanding “hundreds of millions” in a public rant, but just one day later, three women are asking a New York court to force him to pay more than $3.4 million, they say he owes from sexual assault settlements.
In court filings submitted this week in the New York Supreme Court, attorneys for Sheri Abernathy, Sil Lai Abrams and Wendy Carolina Franco claim the Def Jam co-founder missed a January 1 deadline to pay out the agreed-upon amounts from confidential settlements signed in October 2025.
Each woman received a signed confession of judgment from Simmons, allowing them to pursue larger amounts if he defaulted.
According to the documents, Russell Simmons agreed to pay Abernathy and Abrams $1,162,617.77 each and Franco $512,064.88. Because he allegedly failed to pay, they are now seeking increased “confessed” amounts, including interest and enforcement costs: $1,614,290.74 for Abernathy and Abrams, and $711,000.31 for Franco.
Attorney O. Andrew F. Wilson told the court Simmons failed to pay “the Settlement Amount, or any portion thereof,” by the deadline. The women are now pursuing judgments that include 9 percent annual interest and additional legal fees.
The lawsuits stem from allegations of sexual assault and misconduct, many of which were detailed in the HBO Max documentary On the Record. The film focused on claims from women, including former Def Jam executive Drew Dixon, domestic violence advocate Sil Lai Abrams and screenwriter Jenny Lumet.
Each accused Russell Simmons of rape or coercion in incidents dating back decades.
Dixon has said Simmons raped her in the 1990s while she worked for him. Abrams alleged he assaulted her in 1994 at his apartment. Lumet said he directed a driver to take her to his home, where she says she was assaulted and felt unable to leave.
Additional accusations have come from Alexia Norton Jones, Sheri Hines and several unnamed women.
Separate court filings last year from Tina Klein-Baker, Toni Sallie and Norton Jones claimed Simmons owed nearly $8 million in earlier settlements, prompting their own confessions of judgment.
Simmons has consistently denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex and has not admitted wrongdoing in any of the settlements. In past interviews, he has said he has “never been violent” and claimed to have passed nine lie-detector tests.
In June 2025, Simmons filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against HBO and the creators of On the Record, claiming the documentary misrepresented his relationships and omitted key evidence. Oprah Winfrey had initially been attached to the project but withdrew before its release.
Now, Simmons is once again going on the offensive. In a recent Threads post, he wrote, “HBO you owe me 100s of millions of dollars,” and added that he needs the money “for all my charities and family members, specifically my children.”
He accused the network of “horrific and malicious” behavior and demanded an “apology and 100 million.”
He also encouraged the public to “ask Oprah or anyone who’s ever looked at the evidence,” pointing to affidavits from a former Def Jam president and a former driver that dispute parts of Abrams’ and Norton Jones’ accounts.
HBO has maintained its support for the women featured in the film and said it will continue to defend the documentary and its directors in court.
The network has not publicly responded to Simmons’ latest social media outburst or his demand for additional compensation beyond the pending $20 million lawsuit.
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