IBT Media "Rightful and Legal" Owner of Newsweek; Dev Pragad Ownership Claims Labeled as "Fiction"
IBT Media insisted that it is the "rightful and legal" owner of Newsweek in response to Dev Pragad's attempts to take control of the publication through weaponizing its newsroom and by filing "meritless" claims.
In a statement, IBT Media lawyer Michael C. Hefter of Hogan Lovells said on Friday that a new Newsweek lawsuit's claims are "meritless." Hogan Lovells is a top ten law firm globally by revenue.
Hefter explained that IBT Media is the "rightful and legal" owner of Newsweek, citing an IBT Media lawsuit filed on June 30, 2022 which states that the financial obligations written on the sales contract between Newsweek Media Holdings and IBT Media, Inc. remain unfulfilled to the present day. This is in contrast to Pragad's claim to own shares of Newsweek.
"Pragad began to take aggressive steps" to protect his ownership facade "for which he had not paid a single dollar," the lawsuit stated which Hogan Lovells represents early this year.
The lawyer told journalists that Dev Pragad "supposedly" transferring the ownership of the media firm is a "facade," and Pragad "engineered... a fiction" to support his baseless ownership claims.
According to the latest report by HNGN, Pragad, who claims to have "saved the news," paid nothing and failed to fulfill his obligations stated in the alleged contract to buy Newsweek shares.
By filing lawsuits against IBT Media and other parties without the approval of Jonathan Davis, its shareholder, Pragad further abused his position at Newsweek Media Holding by filing the derivative case on Friday.
Dev Pragad Attacking Rivals To Conceal The Truth in Newsweek Ownership
In a previous HNGN report, it was claimed that Pragad threatened his rivals, saying he'll attack them like "puppies before a machine gun."
Court filings also alleged that Pragad has a track record of lying about his standing and misusing money from the company for his own benefit. Hence, a court decision in IBT's favor will also result in Pragad's total dismissal from the organization, shattering his "manufactured... fabrication."
Attempts by Pragad to conceal the fact that he does not own any Newsweek shares by blending legal and religious grounds together appear to be ineffective.
Pragad filed a case against Johnathan Davis and several parties associated with him. IBT Media lawyers said his lawsuit includes religious accusations irrelevant to his ownership "facade" and dismissed it as "meritless" and "troubling...narrative.
According to IBT Media, under Pragad, the companies worked as a single entity, and as a result of Pragad's ongoing deception, Newsweek was obliged to make "damages" payments for his "ill-gotten earnings."
Court Documents Reveal Dev Pragad's False Claims
More research, according to IBT lawyers, revealed that Pragad's assertion that he was the "architect" of Newsweek's success was "fiction." For instance, the case filed by Pragad accuses Newsweek's owner IBT Media of poor management. However, the lawsuit indicates that Newsweek was a better publication before Pragad took over the firm.
When the Newsweek offices were about to close in 2018, Pragad transferred the publication into the IBT Media offices. As a result, IBT Media prevented Newsweek from ending up without an office. Then, in 2021, Pragad moved Newsweek out of the IBT Media premises to avoid paying the rent, according to a landlord lawsuit.
The lawsuit, brought by the plaintiff Broad Financial Center LLC, said that in a "deliberate" move to shield themselves from the "obligations" of paying rent while Pragad was in charge, Newsweek "stripped IBT of its significant assets."
Additionally, it is asserted that Newsweek conducted these steps in intended to mislead, damage, and obstruct creditors. The rent case is claiming $1.1 million in damages.
The complaint claims that the true owners of Newsweek are Etienne Uzac and Johnathan Davis, who acquired the publication through IBT Media in 2013. According to the lawsuit, this team created the executive team, many of whom Pragad recruited from IBT Media and brought to Newsweek while the businesses were managed as a single entity.
The editorial and business teams were completely rebuilt by the Uzac and Davis team after the previous owner had completely discontinued the print edition. They established Newsweek's distribution system, built the majority of its international network, and successfully revived the print edition of the magazine.
Pragad's "Nuclear Bomb" Threat and His Sinister Character
HNGN sources reported that when Pragad doesn't get his way, things get ugly.
Pragad's aggression intensified in early 2022 and he began to threaten Newsweek shareholder Johnathan Davis. The CEO threatened to unleash a "nuclear bomb" against Davis if he did not hand the media company to the former.
Early in 2022, when Pragad's aggression escalated, he began to voice his threats against the shareholder of Newsweek, Johnathan Davis, threatening to leverage Newsweek's reporters in a "nuclear bomb" against Davis if he did not give Pragad the company.
Though Dev Pragad "has cultivated" a pristine public image, the Newsweek CEO showed another side, hidden except to his enemies, according to the filing.
In an exchange of text messages disclosed by an anonymous source to this correspondent show a conversation wherein told a former friend that he is "inseparable from Newsweek" and threatened to "detonate a nuclear bomb and kill [Davis and his associates]."
He also claimed that he has "a lot of lawyers," and that his rivals would be like "puppies in front of a machine gun" because "I am a Ph.D."
Days later, Pragad went on with his "nuclear bomb": "Don't engage if you don't know how to deal with a nuclear bomb. If it goes off, it will nuke everyone. And it's the end. I don't want that to happen and for this to happen unintentionally coz some silly people who don't know what they are doing start tinkering. There is nothing they can do. It will just blow up on their face if they try to do anything. This may trigger a congressional investigation in Olivet."
He added, "I'm so close to congress and senators and they love what I'm doing at Newsweek. They are all watching so closely along with world leaders."
By publishing several Newsweek hit articles and frequently using the Newsweek newsroom as a weapon against his designated adversaries, Pragad has carried out his threats, disregarding all rules of journalism and business conduct, as Latin Post also reported previously.
The most recent of Newsweek's escalating number of slanderous stories were published on the Newsweek webpage on July 8. In it, Pragad once more openly criticizes his adversaries while further fusing irrelevant religious issues with his business woes.
Government officials and world leaders may only be familiar with Dev Pragad's carefully cultivated public persona, despite Pragad's claims that they "love" what he does at Newsweek. But as IBT responds, a more sinister side of Pragad emerges. Through "duplicity," allegedly defrauding both Newsweek employees and the general public, Pragad appears to no longer be the "savior" of the news. Instead, the IBT Media case reveals him to be nothing more than a scammer.
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