Russell Simmons Recovers Celsius Energy Drink Shares Seized in 1MDB Forfeiture

Russell Simmons is recovering a portion of nearly 10 million Celsius energy drink shares held by the US Department of Justice as part of the federal prosecution of former Goldman Sachs banker Tim Leissner, according to Billboard.

The Celsius shares in DOJ possession are worth more than $350 million in total. The exact percentage Simmons is recovering has not been disclosed.

Simmons has promised to use the recovered stock first to pay certain creditors before doing anything else with the money. As of 2025, he owed more than $11 million in past-due settlements to six women, some of whom publicly accused him of sexual assault. He previously agreed to dedicate at least $8.6 million of the recovered Celsius shares to satisfying those debts.

The roots of the dispute stretch back to 2015, when Simmons, his then-wife Kimora Lee Simmons, and Leissner jointly invested $3 million in 3.3 million Celsius shares. A 2023 stock split tripled the trio's holdings. Celsius stock closed at $35.40 per share on 25 August 2026, the day Billboard reported the recovery.

Leissner was arrested on federal criminal charges in 2018 for his role in the Malaysian bond fraud known as the 1MDB scandal. He put the Celsius stock up for bail and ultimately forfeited the shares to pay his financial penalties after pleading guilty. Simmons alleged that Kimora Lee Simmons and Leissner conspired to steal his 49% portion of the Celsius stock — a claim they denied. Kimora Lee Simmons said she remained entitled to nearly 900,000 Celsius shares that she had funded with money from her modelling career and fashion line.

Simmons filed a petition in May 2023 seeking a portion of the forfeited shares. A federal district court in the Eastern District of New York denied his motion for reconsideration on 19 March 2025 in the forfeiture proceeding In Re Forfeiture Order of Tim Leissner et al v. USA. Separately, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge had set a trial date of 2 January 2026 for the Celsius shares dispute between Simmons and Kimora Lee Simmons.

The settlement obligations Simmons intends to pay from the recovered stock stem from multiple agreements. He agreed to pay a total of $10.5 million to four women who publicly accused him of raping them in the 1980s and 1990s: Tonie Sallie, Tina Klein-Baker, Sheri Abernathy, and Sil Lai Abrams. He separately agreed to pay Alexia Jones and Wendy Franco a combined $800,000 for undisclosed claims.

Four October agreements allocated specific amounts from the Celsius shares: $5.7 million to Tina Klein-Baker, $512,000 to Wendy Franco, and $1.2 million each to Sheri Abernathy and Sil Lai Abrams.

Numerous women accused Simmons of sexual misconduct in a 2017 New York Times investigation and the 2020 HBO documentary On the Record. Simmons denies all wrongdoing.

The 1MDB case has produced other legal fallout connected to the Celsius stake. Former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng, who was convicted in the 1MDB corruption case, filed a lawsuit against Leissner in November 2022 seeking $130 million. Leissner's thefts in the 1MDB case included a Celsius stake bought for $1.25 million that later became worth more than $130 million, Reuters reported.

What gives this story its unusual shape is the chain of connections. An energy-drink investment made by a music-industry entrepreneur and a fashion mogul became collateral in one of the largest financial fraud cases of the past decade — and is now flowing back, in part, to women who accused one of the original investors of sexual assault. The shares moved from a $3 million purchase to a nine-figure forfeiture, and the human consequences followed the money at every step.