Ex-assistant says SlimFast founder S. Daniel Abraham sexually assaulted her: lawsuit
The founder of the SlimFast diet program forced himself on his executive assistant and groped her during high-profile dinners with the rich and powerful in the 1980s, according to a new lawsuit.
Beth Sugerman, 65, claims that S. Daniel Abraham, 99, — who is worth an estimated $2 billion — “sexually harass[ed] and assault[ed]” her over the course of three years when she worked for him fresh out of college beginning in 1987, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.
During dinners at an unnamed Upper East Side Italian restaurant with then-Mayor Ed Koch, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Los Angeles Dodgers coach and SlimFast spokesperson Tommy Lasorda and other “well-known figures,” Abraham would run his hand up Sugerman’s leg under the table and pinch her so hard it left her bruised, she said in court papers.
At cheap motels in New Jersey — where Sugerman claimed Abraham “routinely conducted business as part of a scheme to avoid New York taxes” — he would take calls while pleasuring himself in front of her, the lawsuit claims.
Though he was not charged with tax evasion, reports from 2014 accused Abraham of funneling taxpayer dollars to former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, who was being accused of tax evasion, fraud and bribery at the time.
Abraham even had the chutzpah to encourage her to see his psychiatrist to help them “get along better” and “make their business relationship more beneficial,” according to the court documents.
A SlimFast CEO advised Sugerman that if she were to become “involved with” Abraham, it would be “life-changing” and she should “strongly consider” it, the suit says.
Abraham once forced himself on her after going to the movies with her and his daughter, with whom Sugerman was friends with at the time, according to the lawsuit.
Sugerman, a Connecticut resident, claims the abuse went on for approximately three years, until she was fired after requesting a transfer.
She is seeking unspecified damages in a sworn complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court under the Adult Survivors Act, a year-long suspension of the statute of limitations for sexual assault claims.
Though the ASA window closed at the end of November, the parties signed an agreement to extend the statute of limitations.
“No one, no matter how rich, famous, or powerful, is above the law,” said Ilann Maazel, Sugerman’s attorney.
In a statement, Abraham’s lawyers called the allegations “false and baseless.”
“We will vigorously defend these fabricated claims against a 99-year old man, and are confident
that Mr. Abraham will be fully exonerated,” said attorney Eliot Lauer.
