Accused Of Helping Her Husband Cover Up Accident Details, Pay 'Hush Money'

Supermodel Elle McPherson has been accused of assisting her husband, billionaire Jeffery Soffer, of conspiring to cover up details of a helicopter accident on Great Gauna Cay in the Bahamas last year. A lawsuit seeks $100 million for the wrongful death of attorney Lance Valdez in Miami federal court.

The suit alleges that Soffer was at the controls of the helicopter that went down in November 2012 but was not a licensed helicopter pilot. He is licensed to fly fixed-wing aircraft, and there was an experienced helicopter pilot on board at the time.

Soffer and four others survived the accident, and McPherson was not on board at the time.

The suit claims that Soffer and McPherson conspired to keep the fact that Soffer was flying the aircraft a secret so that Valdez's widow Daria Pastouhkova Gogoleva and their three minor children would be limited to a $2 million insurance settlement. Gogoleva said she was pressured to sign an agreement waiving her right to sue Soffer or anyone else on the helicopter while she was still grieving for her husband, and was told pilot David Pearce was flying the aircraft when the accident occurred, according to a report from the Associated Press.

Soffer and Valdez were reportedly friends. Soffer issued a statement denying all allegations of wrongdoing in the complaint.

The U.K. newspaper The Mail reports that Pearce entered into an agreement that gave him a six-figure salary with Soffer's company in exchange for swearing that he was flying the helicopter when it went down.

FMI: www.flsd.uscourts.gov