This might be the worst investment Jim Rogers ever made.
The globetrotting tycoon — known for his spiffy bow ties as well as his investing acumen — has accused a San Diego woman of attempted extortion in a business deal gone bad, The Post has learned.
In civil court papers filed last week, Rogers alleges that Laura Alexis, “a self-professed ‘media consultant’ of Russian descent,” threatened his health and reputation as she demanded that he fork over “large sums of money.”
Alexis failed to deliver on a deal to create a Web-based investing channel for Rogers — and then told him in a testy email that her Russian computer programmer friend “Victor” would be “justified for whatever he will do” unless Rogers coughed up $37,000, according to the suit.
Alexis didn’t respond to requests for comment. Rogers declined to comment through his Los Angeles-based lawyer, Keith Fink.
In response to questions from The Post, Fink said Rogers and Alexis met “in person a grand total of three or four times over six years. The only time they met in person was when he was speaking — once in Alabama, once in Colorado and once or twice in the Big Apple.”
Fink added that there was “no sexual relationship whatsoever” between Alexis and Rogers, who is happily married and living in Singapore with his wife and daughters.
Rogers hasn’t filed criminal charges, he said. He is seeking $650,000 in damages.
“If we get another threat that in any way contains what we perceive to be a physical threat to Mr. Rogers, then we likely would go to state or federal law enforcement for protection,” Fink said.
Alexis first approached Rogers in October 2008 after watching him on TV, according to the suit filed in the Cook Islands, where Rogers has a subsidiary.
“Assuming that [Alexis] was no more than a finance enthusiast and personal fan, [Rogers] thanked defendant for her kind words and told her to write whenever she wanted,” says the suit.
In late 2009, Alexis proposed that Rogers finance and star in a new Internet-TV network — an idea that Rogers eventually backed in August 2012, shelling out $77,777.76 to Alexis in a one-year consulting deal.
But over the next year, Alexis failed to deliver, offering nothing but blown deadlines and lame excuses in their email correspondence, the suit charges.
In July 2013, Rogers “reluctantly agreed” to hire Alexis’ programmer friend to complete the project, but “this, too, went nowhere,” the suit alleges.
When Rogers moved to scrap the project, the suit claims, Alexis told him the programmer and his associate “Oleg” were “very angry” with Rogers, and that they had “special software” that “could do damage with a point of no return” to Rogers and his reputation.