The legal battle between Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend’s brother has taken an ugly turn.
TMZ reports that Bezos is now suing Michael Sanchez for hiding assets to avoid paying $254,404 he was previously ordered to pay. Lauren Sanchez’s brother previously filed a lawsuit against Bezos for defamation for allegedly accusing him of leaking private text messages to the media before his relationship with Lauren became public. However, a judge tossed the suit and ordered Sanchez to pay Bezos’ legal fees and his private investigator, Gavin de Becker.
The bill remains unpaid, so now Bezos is suing Sanchez, claiming he’s hiding assets to avoid having to pay up. The lawsuit claims after Sanchez lost the case, he transferred ownership of his pricey West Hollywood home to a shell company to avoid having it seized.
Sanchez’s attorney, Tom Warren, told TMZ that “The world has been accusing Mr. Bezos of not paying his fair share of taxes, exploiting Amazon employees, and spreading fake conspiracy theories about the future king of Saudi Arabia. You can now add bullying his future brother-in-law to the list.”
“As Mr. Bezos well knows, Mr. Sanchez’s attorneys are aggressively pursuing an appeal of the anti-SLAPP judgment. If successful, Mr. Sanchez will owe Mr. Bezos nothing,” he added. “Nevertheless, earlier this week, Mr. Sanchez authorized his team to coordinate with Mr. Bezos’ counsel concerning payment of the judgment. Had Mr. Bezos’ attorneys bothered to reach out to Mr. Sanchez’ counsel before filing a lawsuit against him, they would have known that to be the case.”
A rep for Sanchez called Bezos a bully.
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