Coca-Cola bottling heir Alki David has blasted news reports about a $900 million sexual assault judgment imposed against him this week in California state court—his fifth massive legal loss for alleged misconduct.
David insisted that none of the plaintiffs who have sued him will collect what is due them. “These people haven’t received a penny and never will. Over my dead fucking body,” he told The Daily Beast.
Dustin Moaven, an attorney for the most recent plaintiff, acknowledged that collecting may be difficult, while noting that the judge in their case is currently on vacation, and hasn’t yet signed off on the judgment.
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“The bigger goal for [the plaintiff] was to get validation and vindication…and we’re going to do everything we can to recover,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy. I don’t expect him to send us a check anytime soon.”
David has previously faced judgments for alleged battery and harassment, among other violations, and racked up a legal tab well north of $50 million, as The Daily Beast reported in 2021.
In the most recent case, David was accused of forcibly kissing and raping a former employee, and cultivating an environment of harassment and abject dysfunction at his hologram business and other companies in Los Angeles.
Attorneys for the Jane Doe plaintiff accused David of posting an explicit picture on the door of the HR department, and they alleged that his employees “referred darkly to one office at his California [headquarters] as the ‘rape room,’” according to the Daily Mail.
In a press release celebrating the decision—which found David culpable of sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress—the law firm representing the plaintiff called the decision “a significant triumph for justice.”
The firm said that David has exhibited a pattern of noxious behavior, adding that “the evidence presented during the trial revealed that the assaults [against the plaintiff] continued even while David was involved in another sexual assault trial in April 2019.”
In an interview with the Beast—in which David’s thoughts seemed scattered and he used several racial and homophobic slurs—he disputed that a jury had reached a $900 million decision. “I don’t know where this jury appeared from,” he said, arguing that the figure was instead a “proposed” judgment.
He claimed he was “never invited” to the proceedings, and that his “due process has been annihilated from the beginning.”
David blamed his diminished position on the MeToo movement, which he derided as “a figment of the imagination of the American media conglomerate that is controlled by syndicated criminals.” He pointed to previous convicts of sexual misconduct, including the porn star Ron Jeremy—“my dear, dear friend”—as fellow victims of a “corrupt” system.
David instructed The Daily Beast to reach out to one of his former attorneys, Matthew Huzaineh, to corroborate his statements. Huzaineh did not entirely do that, however. He acknowledged that the $900 million decision was real, calling it “judicial extortion,” and said the outcome was only reached because the case “wasn’t actively defended. The defense table was empty.”
Huzaineh added that the plaintiff’s attorneys “persuaded the jury that Alki is a billionaire,” which led them to impose such a staggeringly high judgment.
It’s questionable whether David actually is a billionaire, and after suffering tens of millions of dollars in legal losses, he claimed to The Daily Beast in 2021 that his persona was a fraud. “These fucking idiots,” he said, referring to media outlets that had estimated his net worth. “There are no billions.”
[David was once involved in litigation over a business disagreement with Barry Diller, chairman of The Daily Beast’s parent company, IAC.]
David’s history of controversial behavior is extensive. He has been chastised for calling opposing counsel a “fucktard” in court, and was accused of performing the “mangina” in front of employees—a crude act in a which he lowered his underwear, “tucked his penis between his legs, and waddled around the office.” In fact, David previously sent a picture of himself in the pose to a Daily Beast reporter.
