What is Michael Sanchez's net worth? Jeff Bezos asks girlfriend’s brother to pay $1.7M after nude photo scandal
Amazon tycoon and world’s richest man Jeff Bezos has sought $1.7 million in legal fees from his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez’s brother Michael Sanchez, who had earlier filed a defamation lawsuit against Bezos.
Michael Sanchez was accused of betraying his sister Lauren and Bezos by allegedly leaking their private communications and nude photographs of Bezos to the tabloid National Enquirer. Sanchez apparently procured $200,000 from the tabloid in return. The accusation against Sanchez was made by Bezos and his security consultant, Gavin de Becker.
Michael Sanchez is in the middle of the salacious National Enquirer story about Jeff Bezos’s affair https://t.co/1CtMmUkWPU pic.twitter.com/K0yP3nbZEb
— Manfredo (@Mfredofer) February 27, 2019
What happened between Jeff Bezos and Michael Sanchez?
Sanchez sued Bezos in February 2020 for defaming him and claimed that he was scapegoated for leaking the private information by a private investigator and a federal authority. Bezos’s response, filed in a Los Angeles County Superior Court, called Sanchez’s claims baseless and said the suit amounted to an attempt to chill Bezos’s ability to exercise his right of free speech.
However, Sanchez’s lawsuit was tossed by the court in November 2020 who cited lack of evidence, since Sanchez’s only source of substantiating his claims was by hearing from journalists.
Now, Bezos has sent a request to Los Angeles Superior Court on January 22, 2021, accusing Sanchez of harassment. In the request, he demanded that Sanchez pays his legal fees. He also added that Sanchez intended to harass him into a settlement by blackmailing about disclosure of private matters. Sanchez’s attorney Tom Warren referred to Bezos’s fee request as ‘obscene, even grotesque, on many levels’, in a statement given to Bloomberg News.
What is Michael Sanchez’s net worth?
Sanchez, 54, is the son of Raymond Sanchez, a pilot, and Eleanor Sanchez. He was born in Albuquerque, Mexico, where he grew up with younger sister Lauren, the present girlfriend of Bezos. Lauren has had an illustrious career as a pilot, news anchor, and media personality.
Sanchez gained popularity in the media after his sister started dating Bezos, the relationship which led to Bezos’s much-talked-about divorce from his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott. In his career, he has worked as a talent agent for International Creative Management. He also doubled up as a manager for his sister at that time.
Later, Sanchez joined MTV as a director of sales & marketing where he worked till 2004. Later he started working as a Talent Manager/Producer at Axis Management and co-founded a production company named Double Tap Media. As of June 2020, his net worth has been estimated at $700,000.
Sanchez is married to his husband Casey Ashby since November 2011. It remains to be seen how the Bezos-Sanchez legal battle plays out with Bezos’s latest move putting Sanchez in a tight position.