Jay-Z is locked in a new legal battle with the grandmother of a man who has claimed for years that the rapper is his biological father. The music mogul is asking a bankruptcy court to prevent Lillie Coley from discharging a $119,235.45 judgment she owes him, arguing that the debt resulted from her “fraudulent statements and misrepresentations designed to harass and target” him.
The legal feud stems from a decade-long paternity campaign waged by Coley’s grandson, Rymir Satterthwaite, who has insisted that Jay-Z fathered him in the 1990s. A California federal judge previously dismissed the case with prejudice and awarded Jay-Z the six-figure sum under the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, which penalizes lawsuits intended to harass or intimidate defendants. Jay-Z’s lawyers say Coley has subjected him to “numerous unfounded court filings, online harassment campaigns and public statements” over the past ten years.
Jay-Z claims he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending himself against the repeated lawsuits, all of which have been dismissed. He is now arguing that the bankruptcy process should not allow Coley to escape the financial penalty she was ordered to pay. Coley has pushed back, asking the court to throw out Jay-Z’s petition on procedural grounds.
The case remains ongoing. Meanwhile, Satterthwaite has maintained that his late mother, Wanda, had a relationship with Jay-Z that led to his birth. Jay-Z has consistently denied the paternity allegations.
