Jeff Bezos is asking his girlfriend’s brother to pay his $ 1.7 million in attorney fees, after successfully defending 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 Hollywood talent agent, 54, accused Bezos, 57, and his security consultant, Gavin de Becker, of damaging his reputation by telling journalists that he leaked nude photos for The National Enquirer.
In November, Judge John P. Doyle, of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, dismissed the case, saying that Sanchez’s allegations depended heavily 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 court case, said he never accused Sanchez of leaking the photos.
On Friday, the founder of Amazon – who is in a round-trip meeting with Elon Musk for the title of richest person in the world – asked Sanchez to pay his attorney fees.
Under a California law known as anti-SLAPP statute, a successful defendant has the right to have his legal costs reimbursed by the plaintiff.
Bezos, in his Friday lawsuit, said that Sanchez betrayed his sister, and he, by selling his private communications to the tabloid for $ 200,000.
Bezos accused him of doubling things when he filed a lawsuit, with the aim of harassing Bezos to a deal ‘threatening to publicly uncover and reveal private matters’.
Sanchez’s lawyer, Tom Warren, told Bloomberg – who first reported Friday’s lawsuit – that the billionaire’s request was “grotesque”.
“Bezos’ fee request is obscene, even grotesque, on many levels,” he said.
In November, Warren said Sanchez intended to appeal Judge Doyle’s decision.
“We respectfully disagree with the decision of the lower court and hope to justify Sanchez’s allegations on appeal,” he said at the time.
It was not clear 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-Oscar party in March 2018
The remarkable family feud began in January 2019, when the tabloid revealed the case between Bezos and Lauren Sanchez, who were still married at the time – although she was separated from her husband, Hollywood talent manager Patrick Whitesell.
On January 9, Bezos and his then wife, MacKenzie, parents of four children, announced that they were divorcing after 25 years of marriage.
The next print edition of the Enquirer would take several days to be published, and its editors, according to The Wall Street Journal, published Bezos’s story online that night and to print with a headline: ‘DIVÓRCIO DE BEZOS’! THE PHOTOS OF THE PATH THAT MADE YOUR WEDDING. ‘
The magazine published text messages and photos of the pair in public, but not the nude photos.
Donald Trump, who has a longstanding rage with Bezos for his newspaper, The Washington Post, and his company, tweeted on January 13: ‘I’m sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being knocked down by a competitor whose story, I understand , is much more accurate than the report in its lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post. ‘
Bezos asked de Becker to check who leaked the text messages.
The CEO of AMI, the newspaper’s parent company, David Pecker, was furious at the investigation and sent an email to Bezos – via Becker’s attorney – on February 5, 2019, threatening to publish ten nude photos and other personal photos, the unless the investigation of the source of the images was canceled.
Bezos, on February 7, 2019, denounced Pecker’s bluff and published the email in full, saying he refused to be blackmailed.
Sanchez strongly insisted that he had not leaked the photos, telling The Washington Post on February 29, 2019 that he had not passed them on to AMI.
‘I would never in a million years be able to give Jeff’s [naked] pix for AMI because I never had them, ‘he said.
‘If AMI has them, they came from others. Period.’
Sanchez insisted that he did not provide the ten nude photos and other personal photos
Lauren Sanchez and Jeff Bezos aggressively investigated the National Enquirer
Sanchez did not deny that he delivered the couples’ text messages to the magazine, however, and told the Post that he refused to ‘dignify’ with an ‘unfounded spots’ response that provided the texts.
Sanchez said federal investigators found that he had no case to answer about the leaked images.
“As soon as the FBI and Amazon investigators themselves released me from ever having the photos used to blackmail Jeff, I thought about getting a private apology, at the very least,” he said.
“But Jeff and Lauren didn’t look back.
– I was thrown under the bus. Unfortunately, the next time you see them is likely to be in court.
Lauren and Michael Sanchez, raised in New Mexico, used to be close allies and friends
AMI released a public statement in March 2019 saying that it was Sanchez who informed them about the case and ‘provided all the material’ for the investigation.
Sanchez admitted in his process that he ‘helped’ the story in an effort to control the narrative about his sister’s relationship.
In March 2020, Sanchez filed another lawsuit, this one against AMI, also accusing them of defaming him.
Sanchez argued that it was the Saudis who hacked Bezos’s phone and leaked the photos in retaliation for the Washington Post’s aggressive reports of the Washington Post’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
AMI found the case ridiculous.
“Sanchez’s request is his last attempt to ignore the truth and rewrite history,” they said in a statement.
“The fact, as we have always maintained, is that Mr. Sanchez sold the story about his sister’s secret case to the National Enquirer and was the sole source of his report.
“His frivolous process underscores what his true motivation is, his own greed.”