Jeff Bezos is asking his girlfriend’s brother to pay his $ 1.7 million legal costs after he filed a defamation suit.
Bezos, the world’s richest man with a net worth of $ 193 billion according to Forbes, was sued in February 2019 by Michael Sanchez.
Sanchez, a 54-year-old Hollywood talent agent, accused Bezos, 57, and his security consultant, Gavin de Becker, of damaging his reputation by telling reporters that he had leaked nude photos to The National Enquirer.
In November, Los Angeles Supreme Court Justice John P. Doyle dismissed the case, saying Sanchez’s allegations were based on hearsay.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez will be seen in January 2020. Their relationship was revealed in January 2019 by The National Enquirer.
AMI said Michael Sanchez, a Hollywood talent agent, was the source of the report
Bezos said in his court documents that he never accused Sanchez of leaking the photos.
On Friday, Amazon founder – who is back and forth with Elon Musk for the title of the richest person in the world – demanded that Sanchez pay his legal costs.
Under a California law, known as the anti-SLAPP statute, a winner of the winner is entitled to reimbursement of their legal costs by the plaintiff.
Bezos said in his Friday submission that Sanchez betrayed his sister and him by selling their private communications to the tabloid newspaper for $ 200,000.
Bezos accused him of then doubling down by filing a case, which was intended to harass Bezos into a ‘settlement’ by threatening the discovery and disclosure of private matters.
Sanchez’s lawyer, Tom Warren, told Bloomberg, which reported for the first time on Friday, that the billionaire’s request was “grotesque”.
‘Mr. “Bezos’ request for a fee is indecent, even grotesque, on many levels,” he said.
In November, Warren said Sanchez intends to appeal against Judge Doyle’s ruling.
“We respectfully agree with the trial court’s ruling and look forward to confirming Sanchez’s claims on appeal,” he said at the time.
It was unclear whether they still intended to appeal.
Patrick Whitesell, Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos at a Hollywood Party in December 2016
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos at the Vanity Fair post-Oscars party in March 2018
The remarkable family breakup began in January 2019 when tabloid magazine revealed the relationship between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, who were both still married at the time – although she was divorced from her husband, Hollywood talent agent Patrick Whitesell.
On January 9, Bezos and his then-wife, MacKenzie, parents of four children, announced that they would divorce after 25 years of marriage.
The Enquirer’s next printed issue would not be published for a few days, and according to The Wall Street Journal, the editors rushed the Bezos story online that night, with the headline: ‘BEZOS’ DIVORCE! THE CONSENT PHOTOS THAT TERMINATED HER MARRIAGE. ‘
The magazine printed text messages and photos of the couple in public, but not the nude photos.
Donald Trump, who has a long-standing anger at Bezos for his newspaper, The Washington Post, and his business, tweeted on January 13: ‘So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being photographed by a competitor whose reporting I understand, is much more accurate than the report in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post. ‘
Bezos asked de Becker to see who had leaked the text messages.
The CEO of the newspaper’s parent company AMI, David Pecker, was furious about the investigation and sent Bezos – via de Becker’s lawyer – by e-mail on February 5, 2019, threatening to take ten naked and otherwise personal photos. to publish, unless the investigation of the source of the images is turned off.
Bezos called Pecker’s scam on February 7, 2019 and published the email in full, saying he refuses to be blackmailed.
Sanchez vehemently insisted he did not leak the photos and told The Washington Post on February 29, 2019 that he did not pass the photos on to AMI.
‘I’ll never be able to give Jeffs in a million years [naked] AMI because I never had it, ‘he said.
“If AMI has it, they come from others. Period. ‘
Sanchez insisted he did not provide the ten nude and otherwise personal photos
Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos aggressively investigate The National Enquirer
However, Sanchez did not deny handing over the couple’s text messages to the magazine, telling The Post that he refuses to be ‘worthy’ with the answer ‘unfounded smears’ that he provided the texts.
Sanchez claims that federal investigators found that he had no case to answer for the images that were leaked.
“After the FBI and Amazon’s own investigators warned me that I ever had the photos Jeff used, I thought I would get a minimum apology,” he said.
‘But Jeff and Lauren did not look back.
“I was thrown under the bus. Unfortunately, this is probably the next time I’ll see them in court. ‘
Lauren and Michael Sanchez, who grew up in New Mexico, used to be close allies and friends.
AMI issued a public statement in March 2019 in which it said Sanchez had dismissed them from the case and “provided all the material” for the investigation.
Sanchez admitted in his lawsuit that he “helped” the story in an attempt to control the story over his sister’s relationship.
In March 2020, Sanchez filed another lawsuit, this against AMI, accusing them of defaming him as well.
Sanchez claimed that it was Saudi Arabians who hacked Bezos’ phone and leaked the photos, in retaliation for the Washington Post’s aggressive coverage of the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
AMI dismissed the case as ridiculous.
‘The submission by Mr. “Sanchez is his latest attempt to ignore the truth and rewrite history,” they said in a statement.
‘The fact, as we have consistently maintained, is that Mr. Sanchez sold the story of the sister’s secret affair to the National Enquirer and that he was the only source of reporting.
“His frivolous lawsuit emphasizes his true motivation, his own greed.”