Jeff Bezos is asking his girlfriend’s brother to pay his $ 1.7 million in legal fees after he successfully defended a defamation suit.
Bezos, the richest person in the world with a net worth of $ 193 billion, according to Forbes, was sued by Michael Sanchez in February 2019.
Sanchez, a 54-year-old Hollywood talent agent, accused Bezos, 57, and his security consultant, Gavin de Becker, of damaging his reputation, telling reporters that took blank photos of The National Enquirer.
In November, Judge John P. Doyle of the Los Angeles County Superior Court dismissed the case, saying Sanchez’s allegations were based on rumors.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are seen in January 2020. Their relationship was revealed by The National Enquirer in January 2019
Michael Sanchez, a Hollywood talent agent, was the source of the report, AMI said
Bezos, in his files, said he never accused Sanchez of taking the photos.
On Friday, the founder of Amazon – who is in a back-and-forth rally with Elon Musk for the title of the richest person in the world – demanded that Sanchez pay his legal fees.
Under a California law known as anti-SLAPP status, a winning defendant is entitled to reimbursement of legal costs by the plaintiff.
Bezos, in his case on Friday, said Sanchez betrayed his sister and himself by selling their private communications to the tabloid for $ 200,000.
Bezos accused him of doubling down by filing a lawsuit, intended to harass Bezos in an agreement “by threatening the public discovery and disclosure of private matters.”
Sanchez’s lawyer, Tom Warren, told Bloomberg – which first reported the filing on Friday – that the billionaire’s request was “grotesque”.
“Mr. Bezos’ request for a fee is obscene, even grotesque, on many levels,” he said.
In November, Warren said Sanchez intends to appeal Judge Doyle’s decision.
“We do not agree with the decision of the court of first instance and we look forward to justifying Mr. Sanchez’s claims on appeal,” he said at the time.
It was unclear if they still intended to appeal.
Patrick Whitesell, Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos at a party in Hollywood in December 2016
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos at the post-Oscar Vanity Fair in March 2018
The family’s remarkable breakup began in January 2019, when the tabloid magazine revealed the affair between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, who were both still married at the time – although she was separated from her husband, Patrick Whitesell, a Hollywood talent executive.
On January 9, Bezos and his then-wife, MacKenzie, the parents of four children, announced that they would divorce after 25 years of marriage.
The next print edition of Enquirer was not scheduled for publication for several days, and its editors, according to The Wall Street Journal, rushed the Bezos story online that evening and it was printed with the title: “BEZOS” DIVORCE! TRANSMITTING PHOTOGRAPHS THAT END HIS MARRIAGE. ‘
The magazine printed text messages and photos of the couple in public, but not nude photos.
Donald Trump, who has a long-standing anger at Bezos for his newspaper, The Washington Post, and his business, posted a tweet on Jan. 13: “So I’m sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being fired by a competitor whose report, I understand, is far more accurate than the reports in his lobby newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post. ‘
Bezos asked de Becker to analyze who leaked the text messages.
The CEO of AMI’s parent company, David Pecker, was outraged by the investigation and sent an email to Bezos – through Becker’s lawyer – on February 5, 2019, threatening to publish ten nude or otherwise personal photos. unless the investigation of the source images has been canceled.
Bezos, on February 7, 2019, called Pecker’s bluff and published the entire e-mail, saying that he refuses to be blackmailed.
Sanchez vehemently insisted that he did not disclose the photos, telling The Washington Post on February 29, 2019 that he did not send the photos to AMI.
“I wouldn’t be able to give it to Jeff in a million years [naked] pen at AMI because I never had them, ”he said.
“If AMI has them, they came from others. Period.’
Sanchez insisted he did not provide the ten blank and otherwise personal photos
Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos aggressively investigated The National Enquirer
However, Sanchez did not deny that he handed over the couples’ text messages to the magazine and told The Post that he refused to “deign” in an “unfounded smear” response that he provided the texts.
Sanchez said federal investigators found no response to the leaked images.
“Once the FBI and Amazon investigators removed me from ever owning the images used to blackmail Jeff, I thought I’d apologize privately, at least,” he said.
“But Jeff and Lauren didn’t look back.”
– I was thrown under the bus. Unfortunately, the next time I see them, they will probably be in court.
Lauren and Michael Sanchez, raised in New Mexico, were close allies and friends
AMI issued a public statement in March 2019, saying Sanchez was the one who sent them to the business and “provided all the materials” for the investigation.
Sanchez admitted in his trial that he “helped” the story in an effort to control the narrative about his sister’s relationship.
In March 2020, Sanchez filed another lawsuit against AMI, accusing them of defaming him.
Sanchez claimed that the Saudi Arabs broke Bezos’ phone and revealed the photos, in retaliation for The Washington Post’s aggressive reports about the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Washington Post.
AMI dismissed the case as ridiculous.
“Sanchez’s submission is his latest attempt to ignore the truth and rewrite history,” they said in a statement.
“The fact, as I have argued over time, is that Mr. Sanchez sold the story of his sister’s secret affair to the national investigator and was the only source for her reporting.
“His frivolous trial underscores his true motivation, his own greed.”