Russell Simmons Claims He’s Living In Bali By Choice: ‘I’m Always In L.A. & New York’

Russell Simmons, who is currently negotiating a number of sexual assault cases, claims that he has chosen to live in Bali of his own accord, and not because he’s avoiding legal repercussions in the United States.

In an interview with Chuck Creekmur of AllHipHop published on Friday (May 24), the Def Jam Recordings co-founder explained his decision to move overseas in recent years.

“People saying that I somehow can’t come home when I’m there all the time wears on you,” the 66-year-old said. “It wears on me after a while to keep hearing the same narrative, which is false. I’m always in LA, I’m always in New York and Miami. And I’ve never had any reason to feel unsafe in America.”

Simmons filed a declaration on Wednesday (May 22), in which he shared: “I am not physically present in New York and I do not have an intention to live in New York in the future. I own no property in the United States. I have been living in Bali since 2018, which is where I intend to remain.

“For at least nine years before I moved to Bali, I lived in California. As a California resident, I paid California resident taxes in the years immediately prior to moving to Bali. Currently, I pay California non-resident state taxes.”

Earlier this year, the businessman was accused of sexual assault yet again.

In mid-February, a woman who served as an executive at Def Jam during the ’90s sued the mogul for sexual harassment and rape. Filed under Jane Doe in New York federal court, the lawsuit alleges false imprisonment, battery, emotional distress and a violation of the state’s gender-motivated violence law.

The plaintiff claims that the Queens native invited her to his apartment for work, though he started wrestling with her “in an attempt to appear playful” soon after and then pinned her down on a bed aggressively.

“Ms. Doe repeatedly told Mr. Simmons to get off of her, but he refused,” court documents state. “Mr. Simmons proceeded to rape her.”

Following that, the Hip Hop businessman allegedly continued to torment his employee at the workplace despite others telling him to stop, ultimately forcing her to resign in 1997.

“He would sit on her desk, lean over her, aggressively invading her personal space while making sexual innuendos, suggestions, and advances, and rubbing the front of his pants,” the paperwork reads. “Mr. Simmons would follow Ms. Doe to the door or block her path to prevent her from opening it again.”

In a statement shared with HipHopDX, the plaintiff’s attorney Kenya K. Davis shared: “As detailed in the complaint, our client was sexually assaulted and harassed by her boss, Russell Simmons, while pursuing her professional ambitions as an executive at Def Jam.

“She was proud of her contributions to the burgeoning musical genre of Hip Hop, but her hard work and her career in music was disrupted and derailed by Mr. Simmons, a rich and powerful celebrity whose wealth and influence allowed his abusive behavior to go unchallenged for decades. Now a successful writer and producer in the entertainment industry, Jane Doe’s traumatic experiences with Simmons echo those of so many other women who he has preyed upon for decades.”

Just last year, Simmons admitted to being less than a gentleman in his past while flat-out denying sexually assaulting anyone even though several women have accused him of it in the past.

“I took nine lie detector tests, people don’t know that,” he said in an interview with Graham Bensinger. “Nine separate — seven from the Chairman of the Polygraph Association. One for each and serious accusation.”

He added: “Three hours per test by two polygraph examiners — one that I’ve never done this to anyone and one, I’ve never done to each individual.

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“Some people say that they’re not accurate, but it’s 94 percent accurate. I did nine of them, it’s pretty clear that I don’t believe it. I even asked if, ‘Well, what if I believe it, but it’s not true?’ He said, ‘Your subconscious will get you.’ I don’t know how true that is, but that’s what was told to me by the Chairman of the Polygraph Association.”

That segment began with a clip of a CBS roundtable interview with Drew Dixon, Alexia Norton Jones and Sil Lai Abrams — three of the several women who previously accused the Phat Farm founder of sexual assault — that aired back in January 2020.

In the clip, they take turns sharing graphic details of the alleged assaults by Simmons, with Jones saying he allegedly “threw [her] right up against the fucking wall” and Dixon claiming he “showed up naked, wearing a condom and tackled me to his bed, while I screamed and fought and said no.”