Alexia Palmer’s Lawsuit Against Trump Model Management LLC

Alexia Palmer’s lawsuit against Trump Model Management, filed in October 2014 in federal court in Manhattan, accused the agency of promising her $75,000 a year on the paperwork it filed to sponsor her H-1B work visa while actually paying her $3,880.75 over three years. A federal judge dismissed the case in March 2016, ruling that Palmer’s claims belonged before the U.S. Department of Labor or in state court rather than in federal court.

What Palmer Alleged

Palmer was 17 when Trump Model Management recruited her out of Jamaica and sponsored her for an H-1B visa. The visa required her to work exclusively for the agency. On the Labor Condition Application submitted to the Department of Labor, the agency listed her annual salary at $75,000, which would have totaled $225,000 over the three-year contract that ran from January 2011 to May 2014.¹²

According to her complaint, Palmer worked 21 modeling jobs over those three years. After the agency deducted a 20 percent commission along with expenses for postage, makeup kits, dermatologist visits, walking lessons, and limousine services, she was left with $3,880.75. That is less than two percent of what the federal filings had promised.³¹

Palmer also alleged the agency required her to sign a second contract after the visa application was filed, allowing Trump Model Management to deduct expenses directly from her pay. She said she signed under duress and that the arrangement violated New York labor law.³

The Claims She Brought

The case, filed as Palmer v. Trump Model Management, LLC et al. (No. 1:14-cv-08307) in the Southern District of New York, named the agency and its president, Corinne Nicolas, as defendants.⁴ Palmer’s attorney, Naresh Gehi, brought several theories:

Fair Labor Standards Act violations, on the theory that after deductions Palmer earned less than the federal minimum wage.
Racketeering under RICO, arguing the visa paperwork amounted to a pattern of mail and wire fraud.
Breach of contract and fiduciary duty for failing to pay the promised compensation.
Common law fraud, conversion, and unjust enrichment for keeping earnings Palmer said were hers.

Palmer sought class-action certification on behalf of other foreign models the agency had sponsored on H-1B visas. As of the amended complaint filed in January 2015, no other models had joined.³

How the Agency Responded

Trump Model Management characterized the $75,000 figure on the visa application as an estimate rather than a guaranteed salary and described the expense deductions as standard industry practice.⁵ The agency’s attorney, Lawrence Rosen, called the $75,000 listed on federal documents signed under penalty of perjury a “guesstimate.”⁶

Why the Case Was Dismissed

Judge Analisa Torres granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss on March 23, 2016.²

On the minimum-wage claim, the court found Palmer had not alleged how many hours she actually worked, which made it impossible to check whether her average hourly pay dropped below the federal floor. Second Circuit precedent required enough factual detail to run that basic arithmetic. The defendants also argued, without contradiction from Palmer, that she had in fact been paid above the minimum wage.⁷²

On the RICO claim, Torres ruled that the racketeering statute was not the right vehicle for what were in substance labor and immigration disputes. Those claims, she wrote, belonged before the Department of Labor under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The judge left the door open for Palmer to refile her state-law claims for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraud, and conversion in state court.⁸²

What Happened After

Gehi said after the ruling that he planned to file a complaint with the Department of Labor or pursue an appeal. “My client is not forgoing her rights under any circumstances,” he said.⁸ Rosen countered that the statute of limitations on H-1B wage complaints, generally one year from the alleged violation, had likely already run since Palmer’s employment ended in May 2014.⁹ Court records do not show an appeal to the Second Circuit.⁴

Trump Model Management itself shut down in April 2017. Nicolas informed industry colleagues by email that the Trump Organization was “choosing to exit the modelling industry” to focus on real estate, golf, and hospitality.¹⁰ The agency had operated for 18 years.¹¹

The Wider Allegations Palmer’s Case Sat Within

Palmer was not the only foreign model with complaints about the agency. Federal data analyzed by Howard University professor Ron Hira showed Trump Model Management brought roughly 30 foreign models into the United States on H-1B visas between 2008 and 2016, with nearly half of the applications listing an annual salary of $75,000. A review by a dozen immigration lawyers and experts concluded that if the agency did not pay the wages on those applications, it likely violated federal immigration law.¹²⁶

Three former models separately told Mother Jones they had worked for the agency in the United States on tourist visas that did not authorize employment. One of them, Canadian model Rachel Blais, said she earned about $8,427 over three years after the agency deducted rent, beauty treatments, and other fees, and called the agency “the most crooked” she had worked for.¹³ Those accounts were reported separately from Palmer’s lawsuit and were not part of her complaint.

1
Courthouse News Service. Trump Served a Double-Whammy in New York
2
Forbes. Federal Judge Dismisses Case Brought by Jamaican Model Against Trump’s Modeling Agency
3
Washington Post. Alexia Palmer Second Amended Complaint
4
PACER Monitor. Palmer v. Trump Model Management, LLC et al
5
New York Post. Trump Agency Stiffed Jamaican Model Out of $200K: Suit
6
CNN. Trump Model Visas
7
vLex. Palmer v. Trump Model Mgmt., LLC, 175 F.Supp.3d 103
8
ABC News. Model’s Lawsuit Against Donald Trump Agency Dismissed
9
CNN. Trump Model Case
10
Mother Jones. Leaked Email: Trump Models Will Officially Shut Down
11
BBC. Trump Models Agency Closing Down
12
CNN. Trump Business Empire
13
Mother Jones. Donald Trump Model Management Illegal Immigration