Ben Pasternak was arrested Tuesday in Manhattan on allegations that he assaulted his ex-girlfriend, Evelyn Ha, inside the Baccarat Hotel on West 53rd Street. Prosecutors say the 26-year-old entrepreneur squeezed Ha’s neck with both hands and slammed a door on her several times during the March 31 encounter.
Ha later sought medical attention after suffering redness to her neck, pain to her throat and difficulty breathing. Court papers say the door-slamming left substantial bruising to both of her arms and both sides of her hips. Pasternak pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony second-degree strangulation and misdemeanor assault, and was released on his own recognizance even though prosecutors asked for $30,000 bail.
The case adds a criminal charge to an already crowded legal calendar for Pasternak, who has also been accused by investors of illegally diluting the value of crypto coins bought on his token creation and trading platform, Believe. Joshua Lee and Pierre Montmeas filed that suit on March 23 in Manhattan federal court, and they said consumers lost nearly everything. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said Pasternak had been staying at the $2,000-per-night Midtown hotel to avoid being served with the lawsuit.
Pasternak denied the charges. His spokeswoman, Dini von Mueffling, said Ha attacked him during the hotel encounter and described her as physically and emotionally abusive. Ha, in a YouTube video posted Thursday to her 530,000 subscribers, said she left the relationship for the sake of her safety and wellbeing and that the experience was still raw. Her account came after a relationship that had played out partly in public, with each side presenting sharply different versions of what happened behind the closed door at the Baccarat.
The 26-year-old Pasternak is best known for launching Simulate, the vegan chicken nugget startup once valued at $250 million and dubbed the Tesla of Chicken. He sold the plant-based venture in 2024. For now, the criminal case in Manhattan and the separate investor suit over Believe leave him facing pressure on two fronts, with both his personal conduct and his business record under scrutiny at the same time.
