Yahoo Finance Auditions, a wet suit, sex attacks: Ex-producer at Univisión’s ‘El Gordo y la Flaca’ faces trial
The women believed that they’d gotten a big break: an interview to possibly appear on “El Gordo y la Flaca,” a popular and long-running entertainment gossip show on Univisión. Their point person was a producer and actor named Enrique Albis.
But each of three women later told police that the auditions at the Univisión studio in Doral turned into nightmare encounters of sexual assault.
In each case, they said, Albis insisted they don a way-too-tight diving wet suit as part of an audition and then he began to repeatedly grope them in a dressing room. He badgered one woman for sex during two separate encounters, masturbating in front of her both times, she said. A fourth woman told police that she was watching a live taping of the show when Albis took her to a side room, where he fondled her and tried to kiss her.
One of the women, a former actress and model, told the Herald that she recalled Albis saying: “I need to touch your boob to see if it’s real or not because they are going to ask me. Everybody gets touched. It’s something you have to do.”
The story of a producer for an immensely popular Univisión television show using his position to allegedly assault women has received limited coverage in both Spanish- and English-language mainstream media. Among the previously unreported details: Doral police in 2019 and 2020 quietly charged Albis — but only on misdemeanor criminal counts — in four separate cases. Three of the cases are still awaiting trial.
Albis, 52, who has since been fired from Univisión, has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of simple battery. No trial date has been set. Reached by cellphone, Albis on Wednesday said he will win his trials, and that the women are lying and are part of an “orchestrated effort” to defame him. “I have proof,” he said, declining to give details, saying his lawyer told him not to speak.
One woman interviewed by the Herald said they believe there are other victims spanning years. Under Florida law, prosecutors can introduce the testimony of other victims — even if their cases have not been charged — but so far, they have not filed paperwork with the court indicating that they will.
“We are attempting to determine whether there were other victims and will be speaking with any other victims we can find,” said Ed Griffith, a Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office spokesman, who urged other victims or witnesses to contact the prosecutors’ office at 305-547-3300.
The prosecution, however, could be complicated by the fact that a group of women agreed to confidential pre-lawsuit settlements with Univisión, and signed non-disclosure agreements with the Doral-based network. In the criminal case, the Herald has learned, a recent deposition of one victim was postponed after she mentioned that she had signed a non-disclosure agreement with Univisión.
“We are continuing in our investigation of the three charged cases. We are moving forward with our criminal investigation notwithstanding the civil non-disclosure agreements,” Griffith said. “After a comprehensive legal review, we have determined that those civil non-disclosure agreements do not usurp our prosecutorial ability to conduct legitimate criminal investigations and prosecutions.”
Univisión declined to answer specific questions from the Herald, instead pointing to a statement issued in 2019, when it fired Albis.
“Univisión is committed to a diverse, inclusive, and safe workplace culture, free of harassment. We expect all employees to treat each other, our audience, community, guests, and partners with dignity and respect and have zero tolerance for harassment — in any form and in any setting,” the statement said. “As soon as we learned of these allegations, we initiated an investigation. Mr. Enrique Albis’ employment with the Company has been terminated.”
The rise of the #MeToo movement has helped topple celebrity abusers and sexual predators such as Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, each of whom initially relied on NDAs to keep victims quiet. Legal experts say that in Florida, a civil confidentiality agreement cannot be used to cover up a crime or exclude witnesses from testifying about criminal conduct.
“In Florida, a subpoena is going to destroy the value of an NDA,” said Sergio Campos, a law professor at the University of Miami who has studied NDAs and is not connected with the Albis case.
A source with knowledge of Univisión’s thinking said the network believes the women are free to speak to investigators, and the media, about their experiences. Dennis Webb, a Fort Myers civil lawyer who represented the group of women, did not return multiple phone calls from the Herald.
‘El Gordo y la Flaca’
“El Gordo y la Flaca,” which translates into “The Fat Man and the Skinny Woman,” is a longtime and Emmy-award winning staple at Univisión. The titular gordo is Raul de Molina, and the flaca is Lili Estefan, a Cuban-American model and niece of Latin music mogul Emilio Estefan.
The show has come under criticism before.
In 2015, one of its hosts, Rodner Figueroa, was fired after making a crude, racist comment about Michelle Obama during an on-air segment.
“Chisme No Like,” a YouTube entertainment gossip show hosted by TV and radio personality Javier Ceriani and actress Elisa Beristain, was the first to report on the allegations against Albis back in late 2019.
The YouTube show, which has regularly aired allegations of bad behavior in the notoriously misogynistic Spanish-language entertainment media, did multiple segments on Albis. It even featured a hidden recording one woman made of Albis’ advances, and footage of four women arriving at the Doral police station to report the crimes.
The show said it identified over a dozen victims, several of whom spoke on the record to the show, before any settlements were signed with Univisión. After the show aired the allegations, Univisión fired Albis. De Molina addressed it briefly on air in 2019.
“We are going to start with this information that I have to give you and it is difficult for me and also for the entire team of the El Gordo y la Flaca program. In the last hours, the Univisión network decided to terminate the employment of Enrique Albis, one of our producers,” Molina said. “The decision came as a result of an investigation by Univisión on events that allegedly implicate him in sexual harassment of an aspiring presenter.”
Univisión, in a statement released in 2019, said it was conducting an investigation into Albis, even after he was fired. The company — citing the ongoing investigation — declined to answer when asked about the outcome of its investigation, or how many possible victims it had identified.
The Cuban-born Albis came to the United States in 2000, according to El Nuevo Herald archives. He appeared in Spanish-language theater comedy productions across South Florida and worked at the local broadcast network AméricaTeVé, which produces Spanish-language variety and talk shows.
It was at Univisión where the women told police that Albis wielded his influence.
As far back as 2013, according to an email shown on air by “Chisme No Like,” one actress complained to a Univisión executive about Albis’ advances and groping in a dressing room. The executive, now with Telemundo, could not be reached for comment.
Doral police first arrested Albis on three misdemeanor cases in September 2019. He was, however, not booked into jail and instead signed a notice to appear in criminal court. A fourth case was filed in November 2020. Here are snapshots of the cases:
In 2018, a woman — one of the ones who is now a listed victim in the ongoing criminal case — met Albis for an audition. She donned the wet suit and said she was groped too. The woman told police that during a taping of the show, Albis kept harassing her to show him her breasts and that his “conduct was unsolicited and unwanted,” according to a police report.
The woman told the Herald that she remains upset that Albis was not charged with a felony. She asked not to be named because she feared retaliation after signing the non-disclosure agreement with Univisión.
Another woman said that she met Albis in early 2019. On a visit to the studio, she said, he had her try on the diving suit in the dressing room. Then he burst in and began groping her breasts and buttocks, pretending as if he was helping her get into the outfit, she told the Herald, repeating the story she told police.
“He was saying, ‘It’s very normal here.’” He was manipulating me, saying everybody here in Univisión gets touched, gets kissed, has sex, like it’s normal,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified because she too fears retaliation from the network.
The woman became upset and left. But Albis, she said, convinced her to come back for a second “interview” — this time asking her to try on a black see-through mesh dress. Again, she said, Albis groped her and tried to kiss her. She again left the studio.
She says she later heard from a friend who works at Univisión, who told her that Albis was notorious within the network and “does all these weird things and nobody says anything to him.”
Although Albis was charged with simple battery, prosecutors dropped the case in 2020. The woman told the Herald that she did not know until recently that the case had been dropped. The State Attorney’s Office, however, said the woman told prosecutors verbally that she did not wish to proceed. She also sent an email to a prosecutor saying she wanted to “drop the charges.”
The third woman told police that she met Albis at a music festival in Homestead, and he said she “would be good” for “El Gordo y la Flaca,” according to an incident report. He eventually invited her to watch a taping of the show in August 2019 and during a break, he told her that wanted to tell her “something privately.”
It was at that point, in a small room away from the taping, that he began fondling her, trying to kiss her and began masturbating, she later told Doral detectives. “She was able to push past [Albis], exit the room and leave the network building,” the report said.
The woman also told police that someone claiming they were with Univisión called her “in an attempt to keep her from reporting the incident to the police.” According to a police report, she said she did not know how the person got her phone number. Her case is still ongoing in criminal court.
The fourth charged case involved a woman in her 20s who attended a casting call at Univisión’s studio, 9405 NW 41st St. She said Albis took her to a separate room in March 2019, asked her to put on a short outfit and began touching her. Two days later, he had her return, and asked her to rehearse a supposed simulated sex scene while wearing only a man’s dress shirt, according to a police report.
“Mr. Albis also stated that if [she] did not comply with his request, then she would not receive a work contract,” according to a police report.
But Albis then tried to have sex with her, she told police, and she refused and left. Days later, he reached out to say she had gotten the part and asked her to come back to fill out paperwork, according to police reports. This time, however, he bypassed the normal front entrance and had her come in through a “side emergency door.”
In the same dressing room, he tried to get her to perform oral sex, took out his penis and “grabbed her hand and touched his penis with her hand and then masturbated,” according to a police report. The woman hurriedly left the studio.
In the ensuing months, the woman returned to her native country of Venezuela.
But Albis “would constantly call and text her asking if she was ready to have sexual intercourse with him,” according to a police report. “Mr. Albis would state that he loved her and would leave his wife to be with her. Mr. Albis promised to pay for everything she ever needed and kept promising a future acting contract.”
When Albis refused to stop contacting her, she threatened to call police. “Mr. Albis stated that she is a foreigner from another country and no one would believe her,” the report said.
Her case too is still pending in criminal court.
