Actress Jenifer Lewis has filed a lawsuit against a former boyfriend and LA Fitness, and she shared her side of the story in a Facebook statement in mid January 2017.
According to Lewis, she learned in September 2015, hours before her mother passed away, that the man she had been dating had a prior federal fraud conviction. In her statement, Lewis says the man, whom she calls Tony, was sentenced in 2010 to four years in federal prison for defrauding investors of $4 million, and that he was on parole while they were together. Lewis says Tony managed an LA Fitness location she frequented.
Lewis also claims she invested more than $50,000 in a sound effects business before she found out about his past, the same type of business tied to his earlier conviction. She says the discovery devastated her. “It was like my soul was shattered,” Lewis said, adding that she is still mourning her mother and working to trust again.
Lewis is also suing LA Fitness. She says she emailed his employer after learning about his background, and that the company passed that email along to him. According to Lewis, he then used it to claim she had wrongfully tried to get him fired. She alleges the company has kept him in a position around its female members.
These are Lewis’s allegations as stated in her lawsuit and her public statement. Reports at the time, including The Root, did not include a response from LA Fitness or from Tony.
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