p******n
发帖数: 2449 | 2 Media Matters chief David Brock paid a former domestic partner $850,000
after being threatened with damaging information involving the organization
’s donors and the IRS – a deal that Brock later characterized as a
blackmail payment, according to legal documents obtained by FoxNews.com.
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In an acrimonious lawsuit settled at the end of last year, Brock accused
William Grey of making repeated threats to expose him to the "scorn or
ridicule of his employees, donors and the press in demanding money and
property." Brock claimed in legal papers that he sold a Rehoboth Beach, Del.
, home he once shared with Grey in order to meet Grey’s demands, which he
called "blackmail" in the lawsuit.
Brock, 49, heads the non-profit Media Matters for America, which bills
itself as a watchdog of the conservative media but has recently come under
fire for allegedly coordinating with Democrats in what could be a violation
of its tax-exempt status.
Brock’s bitter legal battle with Grey, who is described in a Sept. 14, 2010
, police report obtained by FoxNews.com as his domestic partner of more than
10 years, began after Brock began dating Washington, D.C., restaurant
impresario James Alefantis about five years ago. For the next three years,
Brock and Grey traded angry accusations, which were documented in the police
report and were the foundation of a pitched legal battle replete with
charges of blackmail, theft and financial malfeasance.
Read the police report detailing the lawsuit
Alefantis was also named as a defendant in Grey's lawsuit.
In his response to Brock's lawsuit, Grey "denies that he committed any "acts
of blackmail.""
Grey threatened to go public about Brock and Media Matters' finances after
he accused Brock in a civil suit filed in Washington of taking $170,000 in
possessions, including an $8,000 Louis Vuitton suit bag, paintings, a rug, a
chandelier, a painted bust of a Roman soldier and a pair of carved wooden
chairs upholstered with purple fabric. Those possessions were displayed in
the Washington townhouse where the couple entertained liberal movers and
shakers in happier times.
Brock took Grey’s threats seriously and called police in 2010. In the
police report, filed by Metropolitan Police as a stalking incident, Brock
accused Grey, also 49, of attempting to blackmail him with a series of
emails threatening to "release specific derogatory information about [Brock]
and his organization to the press and donors that would be embarrassing to
him and cause harm to the organization …"
Some of those emails came out as the lawsuit, filed by Grey on Jan. 28, 2011
, wound its way through Superior Court of the District of Columbia last year.
Read the complete lawsuit filed by William Grey
"Please finish this today so I don’t have to waste my time emailing anyone
– Biden, Coulter, Carlson, Huffington, Drudge, Ingraham," Grey wrote in a
2008 email.
Nearly two years later, Grey accused Brock of "financial malfeasance" and
threatened to undermine Brock’s fundraising efforts.
"Next step is I contact all your donors and the IRS," Grey wrote in an email
dated May 19, 2010. "This is going to stink for you if you do not resolve
this now."
Brock said in court papers that he paid Grey "under duress."
On March 8, 2011, Brock filed his own suit against Grey for more than $4
million, demanding Grey return the $850,000, plus pay millions more in
punitive damages. The two settled two months ago under terms that remain
confidential.
Read the complete counterclaim filed by David Brock
Paying off Grey may not have been easy for Brock, even with his salary of
nearly $300,000 at Media Matters. Records show Brock had pulled massive
amounts of equity from the six-bedroom Rehoboth Beach house as its value
skyrocketed during the real estate bubble.
Sussex County property records show he took out a $273,000 mortgage to buy
the pale yellow colonial and carriage house for $606,666 in 1995. As the
converted inn, built in 1793, continued to rise in value, Brock refinanced
his loan on at least two occasions. Records show he had a $1.44 million
mortgage on the property, as well as two more loans against the home
totaling just over $500,000.
Brock received $1,587,500 for the home on May 25, 2010, in a sale to McLean,
Va.-based Vardell Realty Investments. It could not be determined how much
Brock still owed on the $1.44 million mortgage, or how much he netted from
the sale, if any.
Records indicate that Brock had paid off the two smaller loans at the time
of the sale.
Within a year of selling the house, Brock apparently had second thoughts
about paying off Grey. In the civil suit, Brock accused Grey of three counts
of blackmail, citing a statute that defines blackmail as threatening "to
expose a secret or publicize a fact, whether true or false, tending to
subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, to impair the
reputation of any person."
He countersued to get his $850,000 back, plus $500,000 for each of three
counts of alleged blackmail, and another $2 million in compensatory damages
based in part on what Brock’s lawyers called abuse of the judicial system
and legal fees.
Grey, who relocated to Massachusetts, declined to comment when contacted by
FoxNews.com. Brock and Alefantis remain in Washington, where Brock has
released a new book attacking Fox News. He is also under scrutiny from
several members of Congress amid reports Media Matters for America is in
possible violation of IRS laws governing nonprofits.
The Rehoboth Beach home was torn down months after Brock sold it, amid much
community opposition, so the buyer could divide the parcel and build two
homes. It remains a vacant lot.
【在 p******n 的大作中提到】
: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/27/media-matters-boss-paid-former-partner-850g-blackmail-settlement.html
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