This past Monday, Jan Roeg filed a lawsuit against Atlantic Records and accused the company’s late co-founder Ahmet Ertegun of sexual assault. The talent scout is also suing Ertegun’s estate.
Roeg alleged in the lawsuit that upon meeting Ertegun, who died in 2006, he moved his hand up her skirt. She claims he touched her “backside and upper thigh close to her vaginal area,” according to Rolling Stone. She reportedly shared in the suit that the Turkish emigrant assaulted her on several other occasions and also masturbated in front of her.
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In one instance, while stopping with Ertegun at his home, Roeg claimed that he began masturbating and asked her to “show me your t*ts.” After she tried to leave, the record executive allegedly pressed her against a wall and pushed himself against her, continuing his masturbation until he “soiled her shirt.”
In 1990, Roeg reportedly also shared that while out at a dinner in New York, Ertegun drugged her. This, she claims, resulted in her collapsing in the bathroom and having to get her stomach pumped.
Roeg, who began working with Atlantic Records in the 1980s before leaving in the mid-2000s, detailed additional sexual assaults by Ertegun in the suit. He allegedly forced her head to his groin area multiple times to encourage the talent scout to perform oral sex.
After rejecting his advances, Roeg claimed that the entrepreneur held back money from her in retaliation. Roeg also reportedly claimed that the label knew about Ertegun’s actions.
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Per Rolling Stone, the lawsuit accuses Atlantic Records of taking a “laissez faire approach to sexual misconduct, misogynistic and hostile sexual attitudes towards women, and harassment of women in its offices, with a culture of abuse that has become famous in music business history.”
Warner Music Group, the parent company of Atlantic Records, responded to the allegations via a statement. In part, it states, “Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records take allegations of misconduct very seriously.”
They continued that the allegations “date back nearly 40 years, to before WMG was a standalone company.” They added, “We are speaking with people who were there at the time, taking into consideration that many key individuals are deceased or into their 80s and 90s.”
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