Jeff Bezos lobs blackmail accusation at former Channel 7 reporter Dylan Howard

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has accused a former Australian reporter of trying to blackmail him with damaging photos.

Dylan Howard. Picture: Supplied

The world’s richest man, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, has accused the National Enquirer’s parent company and its vice-president, former Channel 7 reporter Dylan Howard, of blackmail in an extraordinary blog post published this morning.

In a post titled ‘No thank you, Mr. Pecker’, Mr Bezos claims to have been threatened with the publication of nude photos of him and suggestive photos of news anchor Lauren Sanchez, unless he made a public statement that National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, was never “politically motivated or influenced by political forces” in an investigation into his personal life.

I’ve written a post about developments with the National Enquirer and its parent company, AMI. You can find it here: https://t.co/G1ykJAPPwy

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) February 7, 2019

The extortion threats reportedly came from ex-Channel Seven reporter Dylan Howard, who now serves as the vice president and chief content officer at American Media.

Mr Bezos published an email from him, in which the Australian appears to threaten to publish a “below the belt selfie — otherwise colloquially known as a ‘d*ck pick’”, and nine other images including a ‘naked selfie’ in a bathroom while wearing his wedding ring and “Ms Sanchez wearing a two-piece red bikini with gold detail dress revealing her cleavage”.

Dylan Howard. Picture: Supplied

“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 [Bezos’ security chief] 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,’” Mr Bezos wrote in the post.

The Australian is not suggesting the allegations against Howard are true, only that they’ve been made.

Mr Howard was a sports reporter for Channel 7 but was dumped from the station in 2008 over an AFL medical records scandal.

Players threatened a mass boycott when the station broadcast confidential details of two unnamed players’ drug use and subsequent counselling.

In 2017 former employees of American Media accused Mr Howard of lewd behaviour, alleging he openly described his sexual partners in the newsroom and forced women to watch or listen to pornographic material, accusations he described as “baseless”.

Mr Bezos and his wife MacKenzie announced their divorce last month, the same day the National Enquirer published a report detailing tech tycoon’s affair with Ms Sanchez along with photos of the pair.

Mr Bezos and his wife MacKenzie announced their divorce last month, the same day the National Enquirer published a report detailing tech tycoon’s affair with Ms Sanchez along with photos of the pair.

The National Enquirer Jeff Bezos affair cover story

American Media’s owner David Pecker has long been an ally of US president Donald Trump and has previously reportedly bought negative stories about Mr Trump in order to effectively bury them, a process known as “catch and kill”.

It’s thought that the company’s pursuit of Jeff Bezos may have been politically motivated in retaliation for Bezos’ Washington Post’s reporting on the US president.

“Well, that [the email] got my attention. But not in the way they likely hoped,” Mr Bezos wrote. “Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?

“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.”

Mr Howard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.