50 Cent ordered to pay $2m extra in damages to woman whose sex tape he leaked online
The rapper's bankruptcy plea has fallen on deaf ears among New York jurors
50 Cent has been ordered to pay another $2 million (£1.2m) in damages to a woman who featured in a sex tape he posted on the internet without her consent.
A New York jury said the rapper should pay Lastonia Leviston the money in addition to the $5 million he was ordered to pay earlier this month.
Leviston brought an invasion of privacy lawsuit against 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, after he posted a 13-minute sex tape of her and her former boyfriend online in 2008, which features the rapper crudely narrating the scene under the moniker Pimpin’ Curly.
He also made explicit remarks about Leviston, and referred to her as a porn star.
50 Cent filed for bankruptcy in a Connecticut court shortly after the verdict, reporting assets and debts in the range of $10-$50 million.
“It’s like music videos, they say action and you see all these fancy cars but everything goes back to the dealership,” he said, according to the New York Post.
The $2 million in damages falls short of the $15 million Leviston’s lawyer urged the jurors to award her, but is more than the $700,000 Jackson’s lawyer argued he should pay.
50 Cent became a break-out star in 2003 after his debut album Get Rich Or Die Trying shot to the number one spot on the Billboard chart. It went on to sell 15 million records worldwide.
Although his music career has fallen by the wayside in recent years, 50 Cent has continued to build a lucrative business empire.
He famously took equity rather than a huge salary to promote the ailing company Vitamin Water, going on to earn more than $260 million from the investment when the company was bought by Coca Cola.
The 40-year-old currently stars in new boxing movie Southpaw alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.
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