Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad Makes Shocking Threat to Detractors Amid Fraud Accusations [Exclusive]

Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad is facing charges about using the newsroom to carry out a "nuclear bomb" threat against rivals in an attempt to take over the media company, which puts a question mark in his integrity.

Court research indicates that on Thursday, Newsweek's parent company digital media publisher IBTimes, filed a lawsuit against Pragad. It alleged that he has been plotting to gain full control of the company through his acts of deception that began in 2018 when he took over the company management.

The IBTimes suit seems to indicate that Pragad has embarked on a well-planned and dishonest scheme to deceive everyone, including Harvard University, the Poynter Institute, and his staff, and present himself as the publication's owner and savior, which he reportedly isn't.

According to the lawsuit details obtained by HNGN, when IBTimes encountered legal issues in 2016, Pragad used the chance to manipulate people around him to spin the publication into an entity under his authority.

The lawsuit asserts that Pragad's recent use of the Newsweek newsroom to launch vicious criticisms on Johnathan Davis, Newsweek's other shareholder, was proof of this objective, as reported earlier.

Weaponizing Newsweek To Purse Business Agenda

Earlier in 2022, Pragad reportedly threatened Newsweek stockholder Johnathan Davis, allegedly saying that he would use the publication's editorial team against him if Davis refused to turn the business over to Pragad.

A credible source, who requested anonymity, showed HNGN a text message from Pragad, in which the Newsweek CEO told a friend that he is "inseparable" from Newsweek. Furthermore, Pragad threatened to "detonate a nuclear bomb and kill [Davis and his associates]."

Pragad also claimed that he can get away with it because he is connected to "a lot of lawyers and bragged that his "Ph.D." would make his opponents helpless like "puppies in front of a machine gun."

After a few days, Pragad furthered his "nuclear bomb" threat: "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," Pragad added. "It will just blow up on their face if they try to do anything. This may trigger a congressional investigation in Olivet. 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."

Dev Pragad went on to say that he would release a damaging article against Davis, against the church that Davis attends, and against Olivet University where Davis' wife worked.

He said that he will "go to the media" to "protect himself" by conveying that DHS conducted a raid on Olivet University over human trafficking charges.

In late April 2022, Newsweek authors Naveed Jamali and Tom O'Connor ran a peculiar story titled "Christian University at the Center of Federal Trafficking and Fraud Probe" which reported on federal authorities investigating the campus of the small, California-based bible college.

Strangely, the actual event took place more than one year before Newsweek covered the story, which questions the timing and newsworthiness of the piece. Furthermore, no other media organization wrote about the event at the time it happened or after the story was published by Newsweek.

However, the lawsuit alleges that the article served Pragad's threats.

"You should be aware that your CEO Dev Pragad is attempting to leverage the newsroom and yourselves for his personal advantage in a corporate shareholder dispute," Davis, the Newsweek shareholder, said at the time to Newsweek.

"He has said publicly and privately said that he wants my shares and full control of the company," he added.

Upon hearing this serious claim, Newsweek failed to confirm or even investigate it, instead claiming Pragad was "unreachable" despite being the Newsweek CEO.

Questionable Articles Highlight Dev Pragad's Intent

Pragad and his staff were reportedly unsatisfied with the outcomes of his first piece, but Davis was unfazed and refused to give up his board position or any ownership stake in Newsweek. Thus, they launched another attack on Davis' character by targeting his Christian church.

Subsequently, Jamali wrote the story "Chinese Pastor's Arrest Ordered as Feds Circle Olivet Christian Sect" on June 27 in collaboration with Alex J. Rouhandeh, a fictitious "national security reporter." The report centered on a person who left the university in 2014, almost 10 years prior, and was accused of hawking Chinatown-style counterfeit bracelets online for "$50 to $100."

The incident allegedly happened in 2019, which puts the article's timeliness in question like the first published article. Jamali and Rouhandeh were seemingly forced to connect the story to Olivet, the church denomination targeted by Dev Pragad's ongoing attacks, with the most notable revelation being the journalists' own admission about the lengths to which they would go to influence the agencies they were speaking to.

The North Carolina Secretary of State's office, the prosecuting agency, noted in the report that it was not acquainted with Lan's connection to Olivet "until Newsweek sought comment on the link in May."

The article remained the top story on Newsweek's official website's homepage for hours and was included as the lead story in its newsletter the following day.

On June 27, 2022, Newsweek editors Jamali and Nancy Cooper deemed the article the most important story of the day despite the G7 meetings, Ukraine's escalating war, and the historic Roe v. Wade reversal has broken out.

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