Sheldon Adelson Sues ‘Wall Street Journal’ Reporter For Libel
Sheldon Adelson is suing Wall Street Journal reporter Kate O’Keefe for libel regarding an article published in December.
Adelson, a casino magnate and Mitt Romney supporter, was the subject of O’Keefe’s article. It described a fight between Adelson and his former head of Macau casino operations, Steve Jacobs.
The Huffington Post reports that Jacobs filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the casino magnate. Adelson is apparently seeking “damages, including aggravated, exemplary and special damages.”
The Wall Street Journal will represent O’Keefe in the lawsuit. A spokesman stated, “We will vigorously defend Ms. O’Keefe in this lawsuit.”
This isn’t the first time that Adelson has sued someone for libel. He also threatened to sue the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee last year because of allegations that he knew about prostitution at his properties in Macau. The DCCC later retracted its allegations against the billionaire.
The Wall Street Journal notes that the article Sheldon Adelson is suing Kate O’Keefe for contrasted Jacobs, “a 6-foot-5-inch-tall Ivy League graduate who colleagues say rarely curses,” with Adelson, who was described as “a scrappy, foul-mouthed billionaire from working-class Dorchester, Mass.”
The lawsuit was filed on February 22 in Hong Kong’s Court of First Instance. The article was co-written by O’Keefe, who is based in Hong Kong, with Alexandra Berzon, a US-based reporter. The lawsuit doesn’t name Berzon, the Journal, or its publisher, News Corp.
Adelson’s company, the Las Vegas Sands Corp., has denied the allegations made in Jacobs’ wrongful termination lawsuit. The article in question ran under the headline “Fired Executive Rankles Casino Industry” in the newspapers US edition. It also appeared in overseas editions and on the newspaper’s website.
Do you think Sheldon Adelson has the right to sue Wall Street Journal reporter Kate O’Keefe for libel?
[Image by Bectrigger (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]
