The photos that started showing up under Evelina Elterman's name on Russian social media -- photos showing a woman with her bare ass pointed toward the camera, back arched in pornographic longing -- didn't actually show Evelina Elterman. They were cut-and-paste jobs, photos of the Queens woman grafted onto Internet porn and posted to fake social media accounts in an attempt to destroy her reputation.
So says a $5 million lawsuit she and fiance Emmanuil Sadikov filed on Thursday in federal court in New York. Elterman and her fiance say they know who's behind it, too. In their suit, they point the finger at four North Texas residents: Izabella and Khananiya Avshman of Allen and Dr. Semyon and Florida Fishkin, who live on Willow Lane in Dallas. Update on December 29, 2014: The lawsuit has since been dropped.
Their motive for allegedly dragging Elterman's name in the dirt -- and for referring to Sadikov, a real estate agent as a lying, cheating, heroin-addicted abuser -- is unclear from the lawsuit.
The New York Post, citing an unnamed source, says the fiance "once had an online relationship with one of the alleged tormentors, but after he broke it off, she hijacked innocent online pics of Elterman from social media and created the ugly profiles on largely Russian networking pages."
Once the defamatory pages were created, the suit says the Avshmans and Fishkins invited the Elterman and Sadikov's friends, family, and business associates to view the profiles.
Elterman successfully petitioned the Russian social networking site where the first fake profile was posted to remove it. It was replaced in October with a new page that included more pics and declarations like "Its my birthday soon, I haven't achieved anything, my dad is an alcoholic, I am living with [Sadikov] in exchange for performing sexual favors for him."
The posts, the suit says, have alienated Elterman and Sadikov's friends and family and driven away Sadikov's business associates.
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