Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest players in soccer history, was accused of raping a woman in Las Vegas in 2009 and then paying her $375,000 to keep it secret, according to a civil complaint filed in Nevada district court last Thursday.
The woman, Kathryn Mayorga, 34, said in the complaint that the alleged assault nine years ago continues to cause her severe distress and that she was coerced into signing a nondisclosure agreement at the time.
Ronaldo and his lawyers, “knowing that the plaintiff was a ‘vulnerable person’… repeatedly threatened to falsely and publicly accuse the plaintiff of consenting to sexual intercourse with the defendant in order to accuse the defendant of sexual assault to obtain money,” according to the complaint filed in Clark County, Nev. The complaint seeks damages and penalties in excess of $200,000.
News of the suit was first reported by the German magazine Der Spiegel. Ronaldo, who joined Italian club Juventus this season in a $117 million deal, denied any wrongdoing, and a lawyer for Ronaldo in Germany called Der Spiegel’s report “blatantly illegal.”
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