World’s richest man Jeff Bezos and his transformation from modest businessman
Once upon a time he was the modest businessman who ran a small site out of a garage with his wife. Now he’s embroiled in geopolitical plots.
To say Jeff Bezos has become unrecognisable would be nauseating hyperbole but the world’s richest man has certainly adopted a different look from his humble beginnings.
Amazon is now a global online retail giant but the ubiquitous platform was in 1995 just a website selling books.
It was Mr Bezos’ entrepreneurial genius and intuition that kickstarted the company’s explosive growth, skyrocketing its e-commerce domination and cementing the founder as the world’s richest man.
But along the way, modesty appeared to shed as the shirts got tighter and the necklines plunged.
The storylines became less suited to a humble businessman based in a rented garage in a Washington suburb as Mr Bezos became embroiled in plots from world leaders.
The loss of hair and replacing the 25-year-marriage with the celebratory girlfriend were the unsurprising steps for an uber-successful businessman, but the phone hacking allegedly at the hands of the Saudi Crown Prince transcends even the most elaborate midlife crisis.
THE DIVORCE
Last year Mr Bezos agreed to pay the world’s biggest divorce settlement with his former partner MacKenzie Bezos pocketing a 4 per cent stake in the online shopping empire, worth more than $52 billion at the time.
The settlement made author Ms Bezos the fourth-richest woman in the world, but she said immediately after the announcement she would be handing over at least half to charity.
In April, the two who married in 1993, announced details of their split on Twitter.
“I’m grateful for her support and for her kindness in this process,” Mr Bezos said in a tweet.
The two didn’t go in to detail about dividing their expansive properties and other investments — keeping the tone light and gracious in their statements.
THE GIRLFRIEND
The decades-long marriage came to a halt at the start of last year when Mr Bezos’ romance with his now-girlfriend Lauren Sanchez was revealed.
The divorce was announced in January, just before the National Enquirer published a story saying the Amazon founder was having an affair.
He later accused the tabloid’s publisher of threatening to publish explicit photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained his private messages.
An associate of US President Donald Trump had been accused of leaking the steamy sexts exchanged by the billionaire Amazon founder and his mistress as his marriage broke down.
Michael Sanchez, the brother of Mr Bezos’s mistress Lauren, shared the couple’s explicit messages with the National Enquirer, according to multiple sources who spoke to the Daily Beast.
“I love you, alive girl,” wrote the billionaire to his then married lover in one suggestive text. “I will show you with my body, and my lips and my eyes, very soon.”
In another message, he wrote: “I want to smell you, I want to breathe you in. I want to hold you tight. I want to kiss your lips. I love you. I am in love with you.”
The racy texts between the Amazon chief and TV star Ms Sanchez were exposed by the Enquirer last year, in what it called the “largest investigation” in its history.
THE “TAKEDOWN” ALLEGATIONS
Mr Bezos then launched an investigation into whether Mr Trump was involved in leaking the salacious messages, becoming “increasingly convinced” that “political motives” were behind the stories, according to the Daily Beast.
Sources from the Enquirer’s parent company American Media Inc, and another who spoke with top bosses at the firm, alleged the texts were sent to the tabloid by Mr Sanchez.
Mr Sanchez, an open supporter of the President who says he is his sister’s manager and publicist, denied any role in the leak. He said he learned of the affair last year and socialised with Mr Bezos and his sister several times, beginning last April.
Mr Sanchez said AMI sources had told him the Enquirer set out to do “a take-down to make Trump happy”, according to Mr Bezos’s newspaper, The Washington Post.
Documents seen by the Daily Beast reportedly showed Mr Sanchez thought the Enquirer had chased the story with “President Trump’s knowledge and appreciation” and support from Republicans “who THINK Jeff gets up every morning and has a WaPo meeting to plot its next diabolic attack on President Trump.”
THE SAUDI PHONE HACKING ALLEGATIONS
Jeff Bezos’s phone was allegedly hacked after receiving a file sent from an account used by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Nations experts say.
The two experts called for an “immediate investigation” by the United States into information that suggests that Mr Bezos’ phone was likely hacked after he received an MP4 video file sent from the Saudi prince’s WhatsApp account in May 2018, after the two exchanged phone numbers at a dinner in California.
The billionaire’s phone was likely infected by spyware, hidden in a message from the Prince.
A forensic analysis by technical experts retained by Mr Bezos after a leak of his personal information suggested that his iPhone was compromised by “tools” procured by a close associate of the Saudi de facto ruler.
The suggestion of the Prince’s role in the hacking prompted calls for further investigation by UN human rights officials looking into the October 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a contributor to the Bezos-owned The Washington Post.
The file in question was sent to Mr Bezos’ phone five months before Khashoggi was killed by Saudi government agents inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
At the time, the Crown Prince was being widely hailed for ushering in major social reforms to the kingdom, but Khashoggi was writing columns in The Post that highlighted the darker side of the crown prince’s simultaneous clampdown on dissent.
The Post was critical of the Saudi government after Khashoggi’s killing and demanded accountability in a highly public campaign that ran in the paper for weeks after his death.
“The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the Crown Prince in surveillance of Mr Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia,” UN special rapporteurs Agnes Callamard and David Kaye said in a statement.
“The alleged hacking of Mr Bezos’s phone, and those of others, demand immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities.”
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