DJ and EDM star Bassnectar, who frequented the U.S.’s top music festivals before stepping back from his career last summer, has been accused in a new lawsuit of sexually abusing underage girls.
Two women, in a lawsuit filed Monday and obtained by USA TODAY, allege that 43-year-old Bassnectar, whose legal name is Lorin Ashton, used his platform as a famous musician to “groom and ultimately sexually victimize underage girls,” solicit their nude photos and subject them to sex trafficking while he was in his mid-30s.
Fox News reports the complaint was filed Friday on behalf of two women. It also names several companies, including Amorphous Music Inc. and Bassnectar Touring Inc., as defendants.
The lawsuit accuses Bassnectar of contacting underage girls through social media “so that he could groom them for eventual sex acts, get them to send him sexually explicit photographs and further exploit them for his own gratification,” Fox News reports.
He allegedly paid the girls with money and items for sex.
The lawsuit also states he encouraged both plaintiffs to watch the movie “American Beauty.” The movie is about an older man having a relationship with an underage woman, Fox News reports.
In July 2020, Bassnectar announced he was stepping back from his career to “take responsibility and accountability” after allegations of sexual abuse.
Similar accusations arose online last year. Without directly addressing any allegations, Bassnectar announced July 3, 2020, he was “stepping back from my career and … my position of power and privilege in this community because I want to take responsibility and accountability.”
