Jury Recommends Billionaire Pay Model $900M After She Detailed Office's 'Rape Room,' Ongoing Workplace Sexual Assault

[Contrarian]

On Monday, June 17, a jury proposed Alkiviades "Alki" David, the founder of Hologram USA, a company known for creating holograms of dead artists like Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson, pay millions of dollars in a sexual assault case. Now the woman at the center of the case, who identified herself as Margarita to PEOPLE, is speaking out.

After a Los Angeles Superior Court jury found David liable in a sexual assault case, jurors proposed the billionaire — who is also heir to the Coca-Cola bottling fortune — pay $900 million to Margarita in damages, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE. The proposal has been submitted to the judge for a final decision.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, Margarita says hearing the jury's verdict felt like "a relief of grief after five years."

"It was the most emotional moment of my life," she says of hearing the verdict. "It was absolutely liberating that the jurors heard my story and to see how my pain and suffering resonated with them."

Margarita was employed at David's various companies, including Filmon TV, Hologram USA, Inc. and SwissX Labs. She claimed in court that she had experienced severe sexual harassment and assault, including rape, while working for David between February 2016 and April 2019, according to legal documents.

She also alleged that David’s “office environment” had been “alarmingly hostile,” claiming there was a room at Hologram USA that employees referred to as "The Rape Room” and that the human resources department door had a “pornographic image” labeled "HER-ASS."

In her lawsuit, she detailed several instances in which she claimed David behaved inappropriately, including when he allegedly tried to kiss her during a work trip on his private island in Greece.

She also claimed that she was laid off from that job, but was rehired by David to work as a brand ambassador for his cannabis manufacturing company, Swiss-X in 2018, per the outlet. She alleged that during this time, he invited her to his hotel room to try a CBD product, which left her inebriated, and he masturbated in front of her and forced her to touch him.

The woman sued David seeking compensatory damages “for sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

"What worries me is that there are more of them [women] out there," Margarita says. "I want women to stand up for their rights and come forward and seek legal representation."

She went to add that she was initially afraid to come forward with her story for fear of facing both personal and professional repercussions.

"I felt it was something no one should know about," Margarita said of her alleged assault. "It was going to make me feel objectified. Everyone is going to look at me as the girl who got raped. I didn't want to be shamed or blamed ... I didn't feel safe to come out in public to say it."

However, Margarita decided to come forward when a friend encouraged her to reach out to an attorney. She says that she always wanted to be an "inspiration" to other women, and although this is not how she imagined it happening "if this is the way I can do it so be it."

PEOPLE reached out to David's attorney for comment on the verdict, but did not receive a response.

On June 20, David responded to the jury's verdict in a video posted to his Instagram. "If you Google my name today, you will see that there is a $900 million dollar order on my head, but the thing is, is that there no order. All these newspapers have got it wrong," he said.

He went on to claim that it is a "fake proposed order" that "was never delivered to the judge."

When asked how she feels about David's denial of wrongdoing, Margarita says, "It makes me sick to my stomach because he can't admit his guilt and wrongdoing. If he can't depict right from wrong, he should at least abide by the law."

Margarita’s attorney, Gary Dordikk, tells PEOPLE, “It's the second largest sexual assault verdict in history and rightfully so. The jury proposed $900 million in punitive damages to deter this from happening again in the future. A prior jury awarded $50 million and this jury felt like the message had to be larger and louder so maybe he finally hears it."

Dordikk was referring to a separate case in 2019, in which David was found liable by jurors for committing sexual battery and harassment against his employee Chasity Jones and unlawfully firing her. He was ordered to pay Jones $11.1 million in that case.

As Margarita awaits the judge's final verdict, Dordikk says he and his client plan to renew a request to pursue criminal charges against David.

"He needs to be stopped, and we intend to stop him," Dordikk says.

Jury Recommends Hologram Billionaire Pay Model $900M After She Detailed Office's 'Rape Room,' Ongoing Workplace Sexual Assault

A jury has recommended Alki David pay $900 million to a woman identified only as Margarita, after they found the billionaire liable in a sexual assault case. "It was absolutely liberating that the jurors heard my story," Margarita tells PEOPLE.

people.com

 

[broller]