Billionaire Jeff Bezos Sues Girlfriend’s Brother For Hiding Money
Whew! Jeff Bezos does not play about his money!
According to TMZ, the Amazon CEO just sued his girlfriend’s brother, Michael Sanchez, for allegedly hiding money to avoid forking over some serious cash. The news site reports that Lauren Sanchez’s brother initially sued Bezos for defamation for allegedly smearing his name by accusing him of leaking intimate text messages to the media before his relationship with Lauren became public.
TMZ notes that a judge threw out the case and instead, ordered Sanchez to pay the legal bills of Bezos and his P.I., Gavin de Becker. That bill came up to a whoopping $254,404! Apparently, that bill has not been paid so now Bezos is suing Michael, claiming he’s intentionally secreting assets to avoid forking over what he is owed.
While speaking with the Seattle Times, Sanchez’s rep said that Bezos’ suit is classic “bullying.” Meanwhile, Sanchez’s Attorney, Tom Warren, told TMZ “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.”
He continued, “As Mr. Bezos well knows, Mr. Sanchez’ attorneys are aggressively pursuing an appeal of the anti-SLAPP judgment. If successful, Mr. Sanchez will owe Mr. Bezos nothing. 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,” TMZ quotes.