Larry Kirshbaum, the chief of publishing for Amazon, has been accused of sexual assault by a former colleague, Teresa McCoy.

Before being employed by Amazon, Larry Kirshbaum served as the chief executive of publisher Time Warner Book Group (TWBG) until 2005. He shared a professional and personal relationship with Teresa McCoy, an editor and project producer at TWBG. Now, McCoy's lawyers have filed a case accusing Kirshbaum of sexual assault on two separate occasions in 2010.

The papers filed revealed that while McCoy was looking at the different salad choices in a restaurant August 9, 2010.Kirshbaum suddenly swooped down, grabbed her and forcibly stuck his tongue in her mouth. A similar alleged assault followed October 4, 2010.

After Kirshbaum's departure from TWBG, the two parted ways and again reconnected in June 2010 when McCoy sent Kirshbaum a new job application. The assault took place when McCoy agreed to go out for a coffee with Kirshbaum who asked her out through some "flirty emails."

The allegations were described as "baseless" by Kirshbaum's lawyer, Catherine Redlich.

"This lawsuit is about a consensual relationship from a decade ago which turned sour when McCoy began threatening Mr Kirshbaum and his family with public embarrassment and demanding money on pain of public disclosure," she said in astatement. "In the past two years, McCoy has renewed her threats. She has hired at least seven lawyers to try to extract a financial settlement, six of whom she allegedly fired and one of whom she reportedly threatened to kill."

Kirshbaum was hired by Amazon in May 2011 to run its New York publishing office. He was instrumental in bringing authors like James Franco, star of U.S. cult TV show Freaks and Geeks, and legendary basketball coach Bob Knight, to Amazon.