Brewdog boss says fraudster ex aided BBC ‘hatchet job’

AN EX-GIRLFRIEND of the Brewdog founder who conned him out of £100,000 spoke to the BBC on multiple occasions for a “hatchet-job” documentary about the firm, it has emerged.

The broadcaster has been drawn into an extraordinary dispute between James Watt, the multi-millionaire boss of the craft beer firm, and Emili Ziem, a scientist and model, who has been ordered by Scotland’s top civil court to pay him £600,000 after she obtained crypto-currency from him through “fraudulent misrepresentation”.

Mr Watt has claimed that Ms Ziem’s involvement in the BBC Scotland documentary The Truth about Brewdog, in which he was accused of inappropriate conduct towards women, casts doubt over its credibility.

The BBC admitted yesterday for the first time that members of the programme’s production team had spoken to Ms Ziem, but insisted she had not been the source for any of the claims made in its programme, which was first shown in January and is on iplayer.

However, Brewdog accused the BBC last night of “knowingly and repeatedly” misleading the public.

Mr Watt has said Ms Ziem, 29, offered to help him unmask anonymous online trolls who had launched a smear campaign against him. He agreed to pay her £25,000 for every name she uncovered.

However, he says he later discovered that she had in fact been one of the people orchestrating the attacks, and a judge this month ordered her to repay the £100,000 in Bitcoin she received, and another £500,000 in costs.

His claim that Ms Ziem was a source for the TV investigation was disputed by the BBC on Tuesday, after the court ruling against her was made public.

However, Ms Ziem posted on her Instagram account when the programme aired that she had been speaking to the journalist who fronted the documentary for “many months”.

A Brewdog spokesman said: “The BBC continues to knowingly and repeatedly mislead the public, including as it relates to its use of sources now shown to be fraudulent and highly compromised.

“We know the BBC was in constant and lengthy contact with Ms Ziem ... Attempts to wriggle out of this with weasel words are unbecoming of the national broadcaster.”

The BBC said: “Emili Ziem was among more than 130 people spoken to by our production team, but she was neither a source for any of the claims made in the documentary nor a contributor to the programme.”