Developer Greene sues gossip site for libel
Columnist stands behind article on opposition to project.
WEST PALM BEACH — Contending that an article on the GossipExtra website was libelous, billionaire developer Jeff Greene has sued gossip columnist Jose Lambiet.
In a suit filed this month in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, Greene calls Lambiet’s reporting “grossly inadequate.” Greene’s claim focuses on a Dec. 3 piece was titled, “Is Billionaire Jeff Greene Behind Dirty Politics of Downtown West Palm Beach Development?”
GossipExtra’s story suggested that Greene bankrolled a mail campaign criticizing Related Group’s One Flagler office tower in West Palm Beach, and that Greene might have spurred phone calls to city officials accusing developer Charles Cohen of racism.
“The article conveys the false and defamatory accusation that Mr. Greene engaged in unethical, ‘dirty’ and nefarious tactics to obtain an unfair financial advantage against his competitors,” the suit says.
Greene is a Palm Beach resident who has spent more than $200 million on properties in Palm Beach County since 2009.
“I stand by the story 100 percent,” Lambiet said Friday in an interview. “It is a speculative story. It doesn’t accuse him of anything, and I offered him to use a full page to rebut it.”
Lambiet, a former reporter and gossip columnist for The Palm Beach Post, said Greene is trying to drive GossipExtra out of business.
“The site doesn’t make any money,” Lambiet said. “If I can’t find a lawyer who will bend over backward when it comes to the financial arrangements, I might have to represent myself.”
Jeff Greene has several high-profile real estate holdings. He also ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010, occasionally appears as a guest on CNBC and has hosted economic summits at his hotel in Palm Beach.
Greene’s suit accuses Lambiet of “actual malice,” meaning that he knowingly or recklessly published false information. Greene also alleges that Lambiet threatened to publish the damaging piece unless Greene agreed to hire Lambiet “as a consultant in connection with Mr. Greene’s possible interest in purchasing a newspaper.”
“That is an absolute boldfaced lie,” Lambiet said.
Greene proved an assertive plaintiff in another libel suit. Greene sued the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times over 2010 stories about his real estate deals and parties on his yacht.
A judge dismissed the suit, but Greene appealed, and the dispute continued for years. The Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times in 2016 reported that they agreed to confidential settlements with Greene.
In the case of the GossipExtra article, Greene’s attorney in December demanded that Lambiet retract the story and issue an apology. Lambiet declined.
“Money damages alone cannot remedy the harm that Mr. Greene continues to suffer as the result of the false and defamatory article,” Greene’s suit says.