National Enquirer chief Dylan Howard slammed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos over blackmail claims
Amazon’s billionaire boss Jeff Bezos has taken an extraordinary public swipe at an Australian tabloid editor, publishing a series of graphic sexual emails he claims were blackmailing him.
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The world’s richest man Jeff Bezos has taken an extraordinary public swipe at a New York-based Australian tabloid editor, publishing a series of graphic sexual emails he says were blackmailing him.
Contained in the emails Bezos says were sent by controversial National Enquirer chief Dylan Howard are detailed descriptions of nude selfies between the Amazon founder and his mistress, Lauren Sanchez.
Howard is a senior executive at media company AMI, and Bezos claims the threats were an attempt to stop an investigation into how private texts between himself and Sanchez came to published in the Enquirer last month.
Howard is no stranger to scandal, having moved from Victoria to build a career in the US after he lost his job with Channel Seven in 2008 over stolen AFL medical records during the drugs in sport controversy.
He has also been implicated in the Harvey Weinstein cover-up, accused of giving information about complaints of sexual harassment from actress Rose McGowan against the sleazebag movie mogul to him and practicing “catch and kill”, where the magazine would buy up exclusive stories in order not to run them.
He has denied those claims.
In a post on the website Medium, Bezos publishes in full the emails which graphically detail nude selfies between Bezos and his mistress, noting he is wearing his wedding ring.
“Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I’ve decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten”, Bezos writes.
Howard and AMI have been approached for comment
Bezos wrote that the Enquirer’s parent company, AMI, tried to get him to agree to a deal not to publish the explicit photos, and that as part of such a deal he would have to make a public statement saying there was no political motivation in the Enquirer’s pursuit of him.
In the email published by Bezos, Howard explains that “in the interests of expediating this situation”, he wants to “describe to you the photos obtained during our newsgathering”.
“In addition to the “below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’” — The Enquirer obtained a further nine images,” Howard writes.
“These include: Mr Bezos face selfie at what appears to be a business meeting.
“Ms Sanchez response — a photograph of her smoking a cigar in what appears to be a simulated oral sex scene.
“A shirtless Mr Bezos holding his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring. He’s wearing either tight black cargo pants or shorts — and his semi-erect manhood is penetrating the zipper of said garment.
“A full-length body selfie of Mr Bezos wearing just a pair of tight black boxer-briefs or trunks, with his phone in his left hand — while wearing his wedding ring.
“A selfie of Mr Bezos fully clothed.
“A full-length scantily-clad body shot with short trunks.
“A naked selfie in a bathroom — while wearing his wedding ring. Mr Bezos is wearing nothing but a white towel — and the top of his pubic region can be seen.
“Ms Sanchez wearing a plunging red neckline dress revealing her cleavage and a glimpse of her nether region.
“Ms Sanchez wearing a two-piece red bikini with gold detail dress revealing her cleavage.
“It would give no editor pleasure to send this email. I hope common sense can prevail — and quickly.”
Bezos says that he wanted to post the emails because as the self made, world’s richest man and owner of The Washington Post newspaper, he enjoys a position of lower.
“If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can? (On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.),” he writes.
“In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless (investigator) Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we “have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”