With the news that the FBI has finally raided the American properties of Jewish-Ukrainian-Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, it’s time, I think, time to talk about an interesting aspect of the Gawker vs. Thiel fight that has long eluded media attention. Perhaps now that there are G-men knocking on doors in the Hamptons and Florida we shall see the fight for what it is.
The richest man in Russia — a man now raided by the FBI — had an interest in a New York tabloid site.
Why was that? Does anyone even ask these questions anymore?!
Whilst conventional — so often wrong! — analysis has depicted the Thiel vs. Gawker fight as one of a billionaire wiping out a publication he disliked. The truth of the matter is that Gawker was a blackmail clearing house used and abused by all manner of people. Just ask Tim Geithner’s brother, David, whose homosexual tryst was a weird hill for the Gawker writers to die on.
When Thiel and I increased the pressure upon Gawker I predicted that there would be an oligarchic figure who would swoop in and provide a necessary lifeline. Peter and I mused on who it would be. George Soros? No, he works for us. Bill Gates? No, not his style.
I feared that it might be the folks behind First Look Media — Pierre Omidyar’s outfit — but his people wisely thought better of this undertaking. Instead, it turned out that it would be Viktor Vekselberg who would provide the money to keep Gawker in the fight — at least until the trial when Hulk Hogan’s suit proved to be too much for them to overcome.
Gawker — bankrupted by Hogan, Thiel, and yours truly — was later bailed out by Israeli-Egyptian-American Haim Saban. Both Peter and I encouraged them not to buy the wretched Gizmodo Media Group but they did anyway.
We know that Vekselberg’s Renova Group hired Trump fixer Michael Cohen. Thiel once told me that Cohen had told him that he would have liked it if Thiel would go easy on Gawker. Thiel, to his credit, did not.
How was Gawker really defeated? I’ll never tell the whole story.
But I can tell you that Aaron D’Souza — who, like a lot of the Aussies and the Goa types, is terribly Chinese compromised — had not too much to do with it. He was only too happy to blow Thiel’s money and get him on an investment which did not work. He’s currently battling with his partners in Australia.
A few hints, though, on what really went down: I cultivated informants within Gawker — I even journeyed to Hungary to visit its fake place of business which was naturally in a building owned by the Russians — and I passed that information on to Thiel as well as some of my other deep state friends. Those friends have used the Gawker model as part of a template which they are now deploying against other foreign espionage operations within the United States.
If I have any criticism of the fight it’s that we didn’t do more for Gawker’s victims considerable, though they are. I think of them often and how I failed them.
Of course the Vekselberg raid presents an opportunity. Thiel can make good on that by encouraging Gawker’s victims to sue Viktor Vekselberg’s estate. There is considerable money — $1.5 billion and counting — sitting in Swiss and American accounts. And we haven’t even discussed all the money that’s held by Vekselberg confederate and Trump and Netanyahu donor, Len Blavatnik.
Nick Denton, the proprietor of Gawker, stayed in Switzerland in property owned by Vekselberg after Gawker went bankrupt. We photographed the location.
This was necessary because the menace that is Gawker is easy to see though it does recall recollection.
Among its sins: It was, of course, Gawker which published Epstein’s little black book which revealed who was targeted and who was not. It was Gawker which published the video of the rape of that co-ed. It was Gawker which published the sex tape of Mr. Hulk Hogan. It was Gawker who targeted yours truly for exposing the Michael Brown “Hands Up Don’t Shoot” hoax — itself a plot to make it impossible for the National Geospatial Intelligence-Agency to build its western campus.
Gawker also gave us the overstated Russia collusion with the story by Adrien Chen which vastly over focused on the Russian efforts to the exclusion of other nations’ foreign collusion efforts.
While attention focused on the Internet Research Agency there was little discussion of Australian-Israeli Joel Zamel’s Chinese-backed influence operation or those of the Israeli spy family the Ledeens with Peter Smith, or those of the Chinese through Reddit and elsewhere.
There’s a dishonest narrative about the Gawker-Thiel story that suggests that Aron Ping D’Souza aka “Mr. A” was the architect of the plot to best Gawker. That narrative was written up by Ryan Holiday, himself something of a construct and puppet of Jared Kushner’s New York Observer.
In point of fact whatever role Aron Ping D’Souza played it was I who favored a policy of total war against Gawker. I made it clear that Thiel and I could be allies but that I would personally pursue Gawker myself to the ends of the Earth. With or without him. “Don’t quit on me now,” I said to him. He did not though the Yelp people tried to broker a separate peace.
So yes, I advised Peter Thiel throughout the fight with Gawker. I did this despite considerable danger to me personally from enemies foreign and domestic.
It was especially dangerous in Hungary. Vekselberg proxied a deal between Russian and Hungarian governments in 2008 after he bought the former embassy building from Hungary for $21m and immediately resold the property it to the Russian government for $116m. (The market price of the building was estimated at $50m.)
I had few protections when I went there and I was followed and photographed.
But my commission had to be done so I did it.
Now it’s time for us to finish the job.
Take Vekselberg’s assets, sell them, and use the money for the fight. And make the Gawker victims whole.
It appears Hulk Hogan not only won his lawsuit, it also seems Gawker actually coughed up the money. Knowing about that makes your article more interesting to me. Ask Fred Goldman; winning is one thing. Collecting the awarded amount is something else all together. This award appeared to be paid off quickly.