Soros tried to choke me, says Brazilian girlfriend

Billionaire investor George Soros is used to seeing his name in the Wall Street Journal for his hedge fund activities – not in the context of a lawsuit brought by a former Brazilian soap star claiming he slapped her while they were in bed together.

The actress is Adriana Ferreyr (inset), more than 50 years younger than the octogenarian titan of finance. She claims in the suit filed in Manhattan that Soros not only slapped her last August but tried to strike her with a bedside lamp and attempted to choke her.

Worse still, according to 28-year-old Ferreyr, Soros reneged on promises to buy her two apartments in New York, one valued at $2m, the other at $4m. All in all, she is seeking damages of $50m.

Soros's lawyer, William D Zabel, admits that his client had an "on-again, off-again and non-exclusive relationship" with Ferreyr between 2006 and 2010. But he says her claim is "frivolous and entirely without merit" and merely an attempt to "extract money" from one of the world’s richest men. Soros's personal fortune is estimated at $14bn.

"George Soros did not slap, choke or throw a lamp at her," said Zabel said, who will now seek to have the lawsuit dismissed.

The New York media like to refer to Ferreyr as a soap star but, to be fair, it was only one soap, called Marisol, and it is nine years since she appeared in it. Ferreyr now prefers to be seen as a philanthropist and property speculator. Hence the anger at her portfolio being – allegedly - two properties down. ·