Jennifer Lopez extortion suit dropped in favor of ethnic Armenian chauffeur
12:17 – 28.12.12
Jennifer Lopez’s $20 million extortion case against her former
chauffeur has been reportedly dismissed in court on Wednesday,
global.christianpost.com.
Hakob Manoukian was named in a lawsuit filed by Lopez in Los Angeles
Superior Court earlier this year after the driver allegedly attempted
to blackmail the singer.
The singer claimed that Manoukian demanded to be paid $2.8 million;
otherwise he would go public with personal information about Lopez.
Lopez’s legal action was in response to that taken by Manoukian in
2011 when the driver sought a lawsuit against the singer for wrongful
termination and breach of contract.
The chauffeur claimed that he had been working for Lopez since 2005
when the singer’s manager, Benny Medina, forced him to resign in 2011
and publicly berated him.
Moreover, the driver said he was hired to be Lopez’s full-time head
driver, but that the defendant and her manager failed to pay him his
previously agreed upon salary.
In the suit, Manoukian claimed that Medina “would often rip him for
the way he dressed, cussed him out in public and told him he could not
speak English well enough,” according to TMZ.
Alternately, Medina said that the driver was simply a “disgruntled
employee who chose to quit,” TMZ reported at the time.
Meanwhile, Monoukian’s suit is still pending. He is seeking
compensatory and general damages and overtime compensation.