AMZN Amazon.com Inc

By Corinne Ramey and Joe Palazzolo 

Michael Sanchez, the brother of Jeff Bezos' girlfriend, sued the Amazon.com Inc. founder for defamation, alleging his representatives spread false rumors to news outlets that Mr. Sanchez provided graphic nude photos of Mr. Bezos to the press.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in California state court in Los Angeles, also names as a defendant Gavin de Becker, a security consultant hired by Mr. Bezos. Mr. Sanchez, a talent manager, claims Mr. de Becker worked with Mr. Bezos to spread false statements about the public disclosure of Mr. Bezos' affair with Lauren Sanchez, Mr. Sanchez's sister.

A lawyer for Mr. Bezos said, "My client has chosen to address this lawsuit in court and we will do that soon."

A lawyer representing Ms. Sanchez provided a statement on her behalf. It said, "Michael is my older brother. He secretly provided my most personal information to the National Enquirer -- a deep and unforgivable betrayal."

A lawyer for Mr. Sanchez said, "Michael's lawsuit speaks for itself."

Mr. de Becker didn't respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Sanchez's lawsuit acknowledges that he helped publicize the relationship in an attempt to get out in front of news about the relationship.

His lawsuit concerns what he says was a campaign by Mr. Bezos and Mr. de Becker to blame Mr. Sanchez for turning over graphic nude photographs, which Mr. Sanchez denies doing. People familiar with Mr. Sanchez's dealings with the tabloid said he showed a below-the-belt selfie of Mr. Bezos to the Enquirer, without providing a copy, but turned over other images.

The lawsuit comes amid renewed scrutiny over the source of photos obtained by the National Enquirer around the time it published a January 2019 article. The tabloid published photos of Mr. Bezos and Ms. Sanchez in public, but it withheld photos it said Mr. Sanchez sold to the Enquirer.

Last month, a forensic audit commissioned by Mr. Bezos alleged that his phone was hacked by a WhatsApp account associated with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi government has called that allegation absurd.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating the alleged hack of Mr. Bezos' phone and whether National Enquirer parent American Media Inc. attempted to extort Mr. Bezos. In a blog post last year, Mr. Bezos accused American Media of trying to blackmail him by threatening to release embarrassing photos.

The post included an email from Enquirer editor Dylan Howard to Mr. Bezos' lawyer in which Mr. Howard described sexualized photos of the Amazon chief executive he said the tabloid had obtained, as well as a below-the-belt selfie.

Mr. Sanchez has denied giving the Enquirer "the many penis selfies" but declined to comment when asked by The Wall Street Journal whether he gave other photos of Mr. Bezos to the Enquirer.

Prosecutors have evidence showing that at least some texts supplied to the National Enquirer by Mr. Sanchez came from his sister's phone, the Journal has previously reported.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Sanchez, who previously worked as his sister's manager, said he was involved in publicizing Mr. Bezos' and Ms. Sanchez's relationship. The couple was initially told by a psychic in New Mexico to keep their relationship secret after their affair began in 2017, according to Mr. Sanchez.

After the publication of photos of the couple at a July 2018 event, news outlets began to ask questions, according to Mr. Sanchez's lawsuit. According to the suit, Mr. Sanchez tried to control the narrative and timing of the story around his sister's relationship by entering into a confidential deal with American Media.

A contract reviewed by the Journal states that Mr. Sanchez was paid $200,000 by American Media. The contract gave the company exclusive rights to "certain information, photographs, and text messages documenting an affair between Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez."

After the National Enquirer's January 2019 article made the relationship public, Mr. Bezos asked Mr. de Becker to investigate the source of the photos, the lawsuit said.

Mr. Sanchez says he became "a target" of Mr. de Becker's investigation and that the security consultant, at the direction of Mr. Bezos, spread false narratives about the photos. One article published last year in the Daily Beast names Mr. Sanchez as the source of graphic photographs, and cites Amazon investigators, the lawsuit claims. The Daily Beast didn't respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Sanchez's suit also claims Mr. Bezos and Mr. de Becker peddled what it says were false rumors to reporters that Mr. Sanchez "was involved in a conservative conspiracy with high-profile political operatives" and the Saudi government.

The suit says Mr. de Becker seized on Mr. Sanchez's relationship with two former advisers to President Trump -- Carter Page and Roger Stone -- as evidence that he was working with them against Mr. Bezos. Messrs. Page and Stone declined to comment. As the owner of the Washington Post, Mr. Bezos has been a frequent target of Mr. Trump's criticism about the reliability of news organizations.

After the Enquirer published its article on the affair last year, American Media sought to tamp down suggestions that it targeted Mr. Bezos for political reasons. The media company offered to withhold unpublished photos of Mr. Bezos, including the one reviewed by the Journal, if Mr. Bezos agreed to make a public statement absolving the media company of any political motivation for the story, according to Mr. Bezos' blog post.

In the lawsuit, Mr. Sanchez says that reporters have been hesitant to work with him on matters about his other clients since the allegations about the photographs.

"All of these actions, including Mr. de Becker's promulgation of the false information and Mr. Bezos' refusal to contradict that false information, caused Mr. Sanchez's reputation to suffer damage on a national scale, as well as causing him to suffer emotional distress," the complaint says.

Mr. Sanchez claims false statements by Mr. Bezos and Mr. de Becker led to, among other things, a Federal Bureau of Investigation raid at his house, loss of business opportunities and estrangement from his family.

The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages.

Write to Corinne Ramey at Corinne.Ramey@wsj.com and Joe Palazzolo at joe.palazzolo@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2020 19:38 ET (00:38 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.