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Sifting through this week’s explosive lawsuit against Leon Black by an ex-Russian model, there may be a bright spot for Black: The case isn’t likely to dig up any dirt about the billionaire’s alleged ties with Jeffrey Epstein.

That’s because the defamation suit filed Tuesday by Guzel Ganieva — a single mother who denies Black’s claim that the pair had a “consensual affair,” instead accusing him of “sadistic sexual acts” — doesn’t mention Epstein, and therefore doesn’t provide grounds for digging into matters pertaining to the dead pedophile, legal experts say.

Another potential positive for Black: While the lawsuit includes a gruesome allegation of a 2014 rape, it isn’t likely to spur an investigation by the New York District Attorney, according to experts.

“Winning a rape case is so difficult,” says New York trial lawyer Mark Moody. “It happened seven years ago. Presumably, there is no evidence. It also looks like a ‘he said, she said’ story. It would be difficult to prove it criminally.”

It could be, however, that the positives end there. That’s because the series of graphic accusations in the suit, filed in New York state court, threaten to dwarf concerns around Black’s ties to Epstein, which until now have only been established as financial.

Analysts say it’s unlikely sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and his alleged ties to Leon Black, will be fodder for the defamation suit brought against Black by a former model.New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File

The legal battle with Ganieva, which may very well result in a trial, could drag on for years.

“Ms. Ganieva’s allegations of harassment and other inappropriate behavior are categorically untrue,” Black said in a statement on Tuesday (His reps declined to comment further on Wednesday). “This frivolous lawsuit is riddled with lies, and is nothing more than a wholesale fiction.”

Black will likely aim to narrow the case to the defamation claims and seek confidentiality as often as possible — a request that won’t necessarily be granted by a judge, according to experts. In about a year, look for Black to file a motion to dismiss the suit before offering Ganieva any money, says Patrick Boyd of the Boyd Law Group.

Ex-model Guzel Ganieva is suing former Apollo Global Management chief Leon Black, alleging defamation and sexual violence.PatrickMcMullan.com

Ganieva’s lawyers didn’t speak with Black’s legal team before filing the suit, according to a source briefed on the situation. That’s “slightly unusual,” according to Boyd, who says Ganieva may have feared Black would preempt her suit with a media offensive of his own, making it difficult to air her allegations. 

Ganieva’s law firm Wigdor declined to comment. Nevertheless, Moody says Ganieva’s case looks strong and will survive a motion to dismiss. A jury trial is three to six years away, sources said.

“It’s difficult to see how a narrative can be created by Black to counter the claims and get a summary judgment,” Moody said.

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Manhattan politicos have squashed Gov. Cuomo’s plan to fast track a Las Vegas-style casino in the Big Apple, The Post has learned.

As The Post exclusively reported in March, three big name casinos — Wynn Resorts, Bally’s Corp. and Las Vegas Sands — have been gearing up for a rare opportunity to compete for a New York City-area casino license as soon as this year.

But efforts to move the process up by two whole years — to 2021 from 2023 — have collapsed amid strong objections from Manhattan legislators, sources said.

“I adamantly oppose any casino in Manhattan,” Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, who represents the Upper West Side, told The Post. “I believe it would be seriously detrimental to the residential and commercial quality of Manhattan.”

State legislators had been working for months to get around Manhattan’s objections, including by crafting a bill to give Manhattan officials the right to decide for themselves on any casino license proposals that came their way.

But, Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not like the idea of giving the powerful island borough special rights, sources said, and the measure could not pass without it.

Gov. Cuomo was opposed to the idea of giving Manhattan lawmakers rights to make key decisions about a casino project for the Big Apple.EPA

“This got really close. It fell apart in the wee hours of the morning,” the source said, referring to the April 6 budget deal.

Gov. Cuomo believed that making an exception for Manhattan would only open the door to special requests in other budget negotiations. And he is against the idea of home rule, where a county can circumvent state laws, the source said.

Freeman Klopott, a spokeswoman for the New York State division of the budget, suggested the the bill could be revived again this year: “With the influx of federal funding, there was less of an imperative to change the status quo, however we are continuing to work with the Legislature to see if there is a path forward this year.”

Wynn Resorts was among the casino giants gearing up for the chance to compete for an NYC-area casino license.Getty Images

But Sen. Joe Addabbo, chair of the Racing and Wagering Committee, told The Post, “There’s mere discussion at this point. There’s nothing really going on.”

And casino execs say they’re not holding their breath for a deal this year.

“I think they will be bringing it up again in January,” one casino source said.

Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, representing the Upper West Side, is among Manhattan officials opposed to bringing a casino to the Big Apple.Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

The most recent effort to push the bill came in May after the budget was already passed, sources said. But it failed and the campaign has come to a complete standstill since, sources added.

The race to bring a piece of the Las Vegas Strip to the Big Apple kicked off in 2013 with a constitutional amendment authorizing seven New York gambling casinos. The four upstate casinos were licensed first and a moratorium was placed on the downstate casinos until 2023. 

Efforts to accelerate the downstate casino licenses had been seen as a potential fix to the state’s pandemic woes. The state stands to create new jobs and collect roughly $1.5 billion in license fees from the measure, sources said.

Dreams of NYC having a scene like this one on the Las Vegas Strip look to be dead in the water for now. Getty Images

Two of the three downstate licenses are expected to go straight to gaming properties that already run slot machines in the area: the Resorts World Aqueduct racino in Queens and the MGM Resorts-owned Empire City Casino in Yonkers. 

The third license is the one that had Las Vegas and Atlantic City casino chains like Wynn Resorts, Bally’s Corp. and Las Vegas Sands drooling.

Disappointed casino execs now say they have no choice now but to hope that the bill is revived again before 2023.

ExxonMobil shareholders elected a third director nominated by hedge fund Engine No. 1 to the oil company’s board, the company said on Wednesday, extending the new firm’s upset victory at one of America’s most iconic corporations.

The election was a shock to an energy industry struggling to address growing investor concerns about global warming and a warning to Exxon managers that years of weak returns were no longer acceptable.

Engine No. 1 nominee Alexander Karsner, a strategist at Google owner Alphabet, won the fund’s third seat, according to a regulatory filing. Exxon board member and former Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman also was elected, the company said.

“We look forward to working with all of our directors to build on the progress we’ve made to grow long-term shareholder value and succeed in a lower-carbon future,” said Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods in a statement.

Woods, who campaigned against the challenger, was re-elected by 94.1 percent, a larger margin than a year ago. A non-binding shareholder proposal asking the company to split the CEO and chairman’s roles was supported by 22.1 percent compared to 32.7 percent last year, according to the preliminary numbers.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods had campaigned against the slate backed by hedge fund Engine No. 1.Getty Images

Existing directors Steven Kandarian, Samuel Palmisano and Wan Zulkiflee will exit the 12-person board, the filing said. Former IBM CEO Palmisano was the board’s longest serving director with 15 years.

The tallies remain preliminary as the counting continues a week after Exxon’s annual meeting, where the company delayed proceedings by taking a recess, a move criticized by Engine No. 1 as a pretext to continue to solicit votes.

“We hope the existing board directors will work with the new non-executive directors and benefit from their significant experience with transition plans and in renewable energy,” said Bess Joffe, at the Church Commissioners for England, which invests for the Church of England.

Shares of AMC Entertainment nearly doubled on Wednesday — but Mudrick Capital, which liquidated a $230 million position in the movie exhibitor a day earlier, isn’t eating its heart out, sources told The Post.

Even as the stock doubled to $62.55 — up 95 percent from the previous day’s close of $32.04 — people close to the hedge fund shrugged it off. One insider said of the brief flirtation with AMC stock, “It’s history,” adding that there were “no regrets.”

That’s despite the fact that investors in Mudrick — who on Tuesday made a quick, relatively modest profit on a chunk of 8.5 million shares the fund had bought from the company in a secondary offering — could have made hundreds of millions of dollars staying in the stock for an extra 24 hours.

Indeed, the latest Reddit rally on Wednesday continued to pump AMC to an unprecedented market capitalization of more than $28 billion.

The rub? Most of Mudrick’s investors come from a different world than Redditors — “one that values business based on fundamentals,” according to a source close to the fund. Likewise, the fund’s backers recognize that stock-price fluctuations aren’t evidence of value, even if they are sending the shares to sky-high levels, sources said.

AMC’s stock doubled to $62.55 on June 2, 2021 — up 95 percent from the previous day’s close.Alamy Stock Photo

On Wednesday morning, AMC CEO Adam Aron unveiled a new initiative to engage with the movie exhibitor’s “extraordinary base of enthusiastic and passionate individual shareholders.” The program will offer various rewards for retail investors including special communication from Aron and free popcorn.

That was a day after AMC admitted in a securities filing that its current market capitalization “reflects valuations that diverge significantly from those seen prior” and that “purchasers of our Class A common stock could incur substantial losses if there are declines … driven by a return to earlier valuations.”