Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and his allies have publicly speculated about how the National Enquirer acquired racy texts he sent his girlfriend, including at one point hinting Saudi Arabia or the White House may have been involved.
The reality is simpler: Michael Sanchez, the brother of Bezos’ lover, sold the billionaire’s secrets for $200,000 to the Enquirer’s publisher, said people familiar with the matter.
The inside story of the deal between American Media LLC and Sanchez, brother of Lauren Sanchez, answers many of the central questions in a high-profile fight between the nation’s best-known tabloid and the world’s richest man, including how the Enquirer obtained the Bezos texts, for how much and why the spat became so bitter and public.
Sanchez said he didn’t want to “dignify” the Journal’s reporting on the contract he struck. He described the reporting on the contract as “old rumors” from anonymous sources. A spokesman for Jeff Bezos declined to comment. Lauren Sanchez didn’t respond to requests for comment sent through an employee at her company and an Amazon AMZN, +1.74% spokesman.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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