Threatened to kill employee he asked to investigate Kardashian, lawsuit says

• Ye was accused in a new trial of threatening to kill a former employee.
• The complainant said he was asked to investigate the Kardashian family.
• The lawsuit also says the plaintiff was instructed to hire investigators to secretly “corrupt” Ye’s wife.

Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, has been accused in a new lawsuit of threatening to kill an employee who says he was assigned to investigate bizarre conspiracy theories surrounding the Kardashian family.

The plaintiff, a military veteran identified only as “John Doe” in the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in a California court, says Ye hired him around December 2022 after the rapper announced his short-lived plan to run for the presidential elections in 2024. according to court documents.

The former staffer says he was originally hired as Ye’s “deputy campaign director,” but that position eventually moved to “director of intelligence,” at which point he was asked to lead investigations into lawyers and other parties who filed lawsuits against Ye, its brand. Yeezy and other related entities.

“John Doe was also tasked by Ye to investigate the Kardashian family and alleged various criminal connections Ye believed they had to criminal enterprises, including alleged sex trafficking,” the suit says.

The lawsuit also says Ye instructed the employee to hire private investigators to secretly follow and “corrupt” his wife, Bianca Censori, while she was traveling alone to visit family in Australia.

Representatives for Ye and the Kardashian family — which includes Ye’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian — did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on Thursday.

Kardashian filed for divorce from Ye in February 2021 after seven years of marriage. Their split seemed amicable at first: The former couple recreated their wedding at Ye’s “Donda” listening party in August of that year, and Kardashian joked about their divorce on “Saturday Night Live” in October.

But after Kardashian began dating comedian Pete Davidson, Ye rapped about wanting to “kick Pete Davidson’s ass” in January 2022 and publicly criticized Kardashian’s decision to allow their daughter North West to access TikTok . Kardashian said in a February 2022 statement posted to her Instagram story that Ye’s “obsession with trying to control and manipulate our situation so negatively and publicly is only causing additional pain for everyone.”

Their divorce was settled in November 2022.

In December 2022, Ye hinted at his relationship with Censori, a Yeezy architectural designer, by posting a piece on Instagram with the caption “Censori overload”. In January 2023, TMZ reported that the couple symbolically married.

The plaintiff says he received threats from Ye’s “enforcers.”

The plaintiff says in the lawsuit that Ye threatened his life and fired him this year after he reported to Yeezy management an allegation of child abuse at Ye’s private Christian school, Donda Academy, in California.

“Almost immediately thereafter, on the same day, Ye himself called Doe to yell, curse, and threaten Doe with grievous bodily harm, including death, if Doe repeated what Doe learned from the employee Donda,” the lawsuit says. “‘You’re dead to me!’ Ye told Doe that he also played recordings of scary voices threatening to harm Doe.

In the days and weeks that followed, the lawsuit says the plaintiff — who is diagnosed with PTSD — received threats from Ye’s associates, who were known as “enforcers.”

Those alleged threats “exacerbated” the employee’s PTSD, the lawsuit states.

“As a result of Plaintiff’s legal reports of violations of the law, including child abuse and drug use, and his refusal to engage in unethical activities, Yeezy and Ye retaliated against Plaintiff with a campaign of threats , intimidation and harassment,” the lawsuit states. .

The plaintiff accuses Ye in the suit of retaliation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and numerous labor code violations, including unpaid wages.

“You have only yourself to blame for your growing legal woes. He simply cannot continue to hire employees, treat them horribly, then refuse to pay them, in violation of numerous labor laws, let alone threaten to kill them as he did in this case. ,” plaintiff attorney Ron Zambrano, partner and chair of employment litigation at West Coast Employment Lawyers, said in a statement.

Zambrano, who previously filed other lawsuits against Ye on behalf of former employees, added: “Our client is so fearful of Ye and his erratic, disruptive and unpredictable behavior that he wishes to remain anonymous for his own safety.”

“It is not only illegal but unthinkable for an employer to threaten any employee with bodily harm or death,” Zambrano said.

According to Zambrano, the plaintiff is seeking more than $1 million in punitive and compensatory damages, including unpaid wages.