Federal probe of Fox News focuses on potential disguising of harassment payout

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post



By Paul Farhi May 5 at 2:23 PM

Federal prosecutors are looking into whether Fox News Channel and its parent company tried to disguise a $3.15 million payment to a former employee who said she had a 20-year affair with the network’s former chairman, Roger Ailes, according to people involved with the investigation.

Investigators in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York have focused on a payment to Laurie Luhn, a former Fox booker and event planner who left the company in 2011 with the seven-figure severance package. Luhn later claimed that she had engaged in a consensual but a mentally abusive, relationship with Ailes and that several of his lieutenants facilitated the assignations and were aware of his alleged mistreatment of her.

Prosecutors have taken testimony from several witnesses, including Luhn, about her severance package and how it was recorded on Fox’s books, according to those familiar with the probe.

The size of the payout is of less concern to the investigation than the manner in which it was accounted for, those people said. Prosecutors are investigating whether Fox News Channel and its parent company, 21st Century Fox, improperly accounted for the payments to Luhn and other ex-employees to minimize their impact on Fox’s books.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/federal-probe-of-fox-news-focuses-on-payments-to-roger-ailes-alleged-mistress/2017/05/05/bfdb51ae-3109-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.75ca18fe932a&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Hah - this could screw Murdoch's attempt to take complete control of Sky in the UK

Attorneys for Fox News Employees Hope to Influence 21st Century Fox’s Sky Bid

Two attorneys representing current and former Fox News staffers in some of the growing stack of litigation that has swirled around the 21st Century Fox unit say they will try to use the controversy to influence the British media-industry regulator known as Ofcom that is investigating whether the Murdoch-controlled Fox is “fit and proper” to buy the 61% of the British satellite-broadcaster Sky it does not already own. 21st Century Fox reached a deal late last year to buy the remaining Sky stake for $14.6 billion – a pact that would give Fox enormous global heft.

Lisa Bloom, an attorney who represents one of the women who recently levied sexual-harassment allegations against the former Fox News stalwart Bill O’Reilly, said Friday she will travel next week to the United Kingdom to make a “verbal submission” to Ofcom officials. Wendy Walsh, a one-time Fox News contributor who made public accusations against O’Reilly, and her client, will accompany her.

Douglas Wigdor, a New York attorney representing 11 current and former Fox News employees in a racial-discrimination lawsuit filed against Fox News, will visit Ofcom next Thursday. “I am pleased that Ofcom has invited me to appear in London next week on behalf of our 20 clients and look forward to sharing the information that I have come to learn about 21st Century Fox through the dedicated men and women that I am privileged to represent,” Wigdor said in a statement. Fox News has said that it “vehemently denied” the claims of the lawsuit.

http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/fox-news-channel-sky-murdoch-21st-century-fox-1202410510/

and https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/may/05/bill-oreilly-accuser-meet-ofcom-fox-scandal-threatens-rupert-murdoch-sky-takeover-bid

[BumRushDaShow]

3. That's why he was quick to

ditch Aisles, O'Reilly, and Shine. He desperately needs this story to go away. But he let it fester too long and as they peel back layer after layer of coverup bandages, more stuff oozes out.

[COLGATE4]

2. Talk about Freudian slips!

Reading your post I came to the second paragraph and saw "Investigators... have focused on a payment to
Laurie Luhn, a former Fox hooker..."

Maybe not so much of a slip???