Bezos lover’s brother denies leaking intimate photos
THE brother of Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend yesterday denied any involvement in the scandal which has seen the crown prince of Saudi Arabia linked to alleged hacking of the Amazon billionaire’s phone.
Michael Sanchez has been accused of leaking private photos of Mr Bezos to publishers AMI that exposed the Amazon billionaire’s affair with his sister Lauren, a former TV presenter, earlier this year.
He insisted to The Sunday Telegraph that explicit images allegedly used to threaten Mr Bezos had not come from him, and denied claims from AMI, publisher of the National Enquirer, that he was its single source.
“AMI obtained [the images] illegally. I suggest real journalists shift their focus in that direction,” Mr Sanchez said.
The Wall Street Journal reported late on Friday that the FBI have evidence that Ms Sanchez gave explicit texts to her brother, who then leaked them.
It comes after explosive claims that a WhatsApp message sent from Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s phone to Mr Bezos allowed huge quan
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tities of his private information to be hacked.
Last week UN rapporteurs called for further investigations into the matter, which Mr Bezos has suggested is linked to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident who worked for his Washington Post newspaper.
Last year the Enquirer revealed married Mr Bezos, the world’s richest man, was having an affair with Ms Sanchez.
Mr Bezos has accused AMI’s chief executive David Pecker and its chief content officer Dylan Howard of attempting to blackmail him.
Mr Sanchez admits speaking to the magazine but insisted he was not the only one and said he had cooperated with all investigations into the matter.
“All proved without a shadow of a doubt that I never possessed the penis selfies Jeff Bezos texted,” he said.
In a statement to The Telegraph, he added: “The Wall Street Journal continues to get it wrong even after publication of the UN report.
The Saudi government has called the hacking allegations against the crown prince absurd.
Mr Pecker and Mr Howard have denied the blackmail allegations.