Hadari Oshri’s losses mount up as she fails again to silence her victims

aitanavargas
16 jul
7 min de lectura

Actualizado: 31 jul

By Investor News/Aitana Vargas

Story originally published in Investor News on October 13, 2021

NOTA EDITORIAL: Esta serie de investigación galardonada con un premio del LA Press Club en 2022 fue producida por Aitana Vargas para Investor News entre 2021 y 2026. A continuación reproducimos el trabajo original, acompañado de los documentos y las fotografías que forman parte del expediente. En las próximas semanas, iremos difundiendo las entregas completas, las cuales se divulgaron públicamente después de que la justicia de Los Ángeles desestimara intentos judiciales por parte de una de las presuntas implicadas, Hadari Oshri, de prohibir su publicación. Este trabajo está protegido por la Ley de Protección de Periodistas de California (Cal. Const. Art. I, *§ 2(b); California Evidence Code § 1070). La Cronista no renuncia a ningún privilegio o derecho al proceder a su difusión.***

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: On June 22, 2021, Hadari Oshri –Marc Lubaszka’s business partner– filed a frivolous civil harassment restraining order (CHRO) against Investor News reporter Aitana Vargas to stop the publication of her investigative series “A Special Report: The Harrowing Impunity of White-Collar crime,” and any subsequent installments or future media coverage. On August 3, 2021, Vargas filed an anti-SLAPP motion to strike Oshri’s CHRO petition. In a hearing held on September 13, 2021, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Doreen Boxer granted Vargas’s anti-SLAPP motion and denied Oshri’s civil harassment petition for failure to sustain the applicable burden of proof. CA's powerful anti-SLAPP statute mandates that the losing party, in this case Oshri, pay the prevailing party's attorney’s fees for filing a frivolous case. She also declined to go on a recorded interview or provide statements via email. And what follows are the next installments of Vargas's months-long investigative series whose publication Oshri desperately attempted yet failed to stop.

Aitana Vargas seeks over $23K in attorney’s fees following her successful anti-SLAPP motion to strike Oshri’s frivolous case

In September 2021, Hadari Oshri lost anti-SLAPP motion to journalist Aitana Vargas. Oshri failed to suppress an investigative series on her alleged participation in a PPE scheme. — *In September 2021, Hadari Oshri lost legal case attempting to ban journalist Aitana Vargas from releasing her exposé on alleged PPE fraud during the pandemic.*

The Israeli entrepreneur will have to pay mandatory attorney’s fees to the LA-based news reporter

Los Angeles (CA) – Filing meritless legal actions can be costly, particularly when the petitioner is trying to silence freedom of speech on an issue of public interest and is unable to prevail on her claims.

And now Hadari Oshri is about to know why.

According to documents filed with the court today, Aitana Vargas seeks over $23,000 in attorney’s fees following her successful anti-SLAPP motion, which was granted by Judge Doreen Boxer in a hearing held in the Los Angeles Superior Court on September 13, 2021.

Hadari Oshri’s meritless civil harassment restraining order petition against award-winning news correspondent Aitana Vargas could cost Oshri thousands of dollars. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted Vargas's anti-SLAPP motion, clearing the way for Vargas's investigative series into alleged PPE fraud to see the light of day. The coverage won an LA Press Club award in 2022. — *Hadari Oshri’s meritless civil harassment restraining order petition against award-winning news correspondent Aitana Vargas could cost Oshri thousands of dollars.*

Hadari Oshri files poorly-written and incomprehensible statements with the courts

At the motion hearing, the judge stated that Oshri’s written petition for a civil harassment restraining order (CHRO) was confusing and that she had not produced admissible “evidence” to obtain injunctive relief against the journalist.

In her poorly-written CHRO petition dated June 22, 2021, Oshri referred to the award-winning news correspondent as “Mis Vergas” (My Dicks), accused her of being both “a very dangerous woman” and a “corrupted reporter” without any proof, and even identified Vargas as a member of the non-existent Spanish “race.” But Oshri’s declaration also featured other puzzling –yet memorable– statements, including the following:

“(Vargas) is digging in places that are not here !! she is not AUTHENTIC, SHE IS NOT THE FBI OR THE CIA, that she can stock me like that on all my social media accounts, stock my online articles, and contact everyone involved !!!”
“Mis Vergas (My Dicks) is so dangerous, that she is speaking about the situation publicly on here FB, and claiming that she is a SLAPP and by law she is protected, Mis Vargas is not the FBI and not the CIA, here stories about me are lyes, and she has no reason to contact anyone on my network.”
“Aitaina Vergas (Aitaina Dicks) is a corrupted journalist, she is not authentic, SHE MUST BE STOPPED NOW!!!”
“A quick look on here very recent Facebook page posting can be an avoidance for here thought process and here urgency.”
“My attorney sent her a seance and desist, and she kept going.”
“Stop writing about me and contacting my network! Suspension of her journalist license so she can’t do this to anyone else!!”

Hadari Oshri’s filing came after Vargas refused to take down her investigative series

Court documents –and other records– show that since February this year, the news reporter has faced legal pressure aimed at preventing the publication of her exposé, first released on May 30, 2021.

On February 16, 2021, Oshri’s counsel, John Tamborelli, sent a 3-page cease-and-desist letter to one of Vargas’s sources, Fergal Furlong, who had shared with the journalist key information implicating Oshri in an alleged joint PPE scheme with Marc Lubaszka, court documents show.

The intimidating letter –which misspelled Furlong’s name multiple times and that he refused to sign– threatened legal action against both him and an “alleged reporter” that Tamborelli had spoken with if “she” published any information or statements from Furlong.

The “alleged reporter” that Tamborelli –undoubtedly– referred to in his cease-and-desist letter was Vargas, with whom he’d spoken for one minute one day prior, phone records show.

But a few days later –acting on Oshri’s instructions, as shown by several emails the entrepreneur sent to the reporter–, Tamborelli sent a second cease-and-desist email: This time to both Furlong and Vargas.

The journalist didn’t reply to Oshri’s email nor her attorney’s legal threats and refused to comply with their demands, including those that Tamborelli laid out in a June 2021 settlement agreement between Furlong and Oshri.

Page 3 of the settlement agreement contained a provision requiring that Vargas remove the first part of her exposé and any or all articles that she had posted related to Oshri, Tamborelli and/or Lubaszka.

Hadari Oshri’s former attorney, John Tamborelli, tried to silence reporter Aitana Vargas’s media coverage. Screenshot of settlement agreement Vargas was not a party to showing Tamborelli included a provision to silence media coverage that won an LA Press Club award in 2022. — *Hadari Oshri’s former attorney, John Tamborelli, tried to silence reporter Aitana Vargas’s media coverage. Screenshot of settlement agreement Vargas was not a party to.*

The reporter, not a party to the agreement, refused to comply with the terms of the provision and reiterated that she would not be removing any reporting nor content from her social media accounts.

At the end of June, the National Writers Union sent a letter to Tamborelli demanding that he cease any further intimidation attempts towards the journalist.

“NWU takes every attempt to silence or threaten a journalist, specially a woman journalist, extremely seriously,” the letter said. “We would also point out that while any confidential source may retract their story at any time, even under coercion, they have no legal standing to demand that any article be taken down. We ask that you cease any further acts of intimidation against our member.”

*Letter sent by the NWU to attorney John Tamborelli following his legal threats to journalist Aitana Vargas.*

On June 22, 2021, as Vargas was about to release the second part of her months-long investigative series on Oshri’s participation in a PPE scheme with Lubaszka, Oshri took legal action against her.

Prior to Oshri’s CHRO petition against Vargas, the reporter had reiterated publicly –on social media– that she would not succumb to legal pressure from Oshri and Tamborelli nor stop working on her investigative series.

Hadari Oshri is no stranger to the legal system and lawsuits against her

The Israeli entrepreneur is not new to the legal system. She has faced multiple legal challenges in the past, and former associates who have gone on to obtain judgments against her are still trying to collect payments.

In 2019, entrepreneur Dan Weber filed a small claims court case against her, but the case was never heard because he was unable to serve legal documents on her and then they reached an agreement, according to multiple sources. She still has not paid off the debt. Oshri was also named as a defendant in a personal injury case filed in Los Angeles in 2020.

Court records show multiple cases filed against entrepreneur Hadari Oshri and her failed fashion fairy company, Xehar. — *Court records show legal cases against entrepreneur Hadari Oshri and her failed fashion fairy company: Xehar*

According to public records, Oshri is the managing director of Trade Safe Pro, LLC and former CEO of Xehar Inc., a fashion company that went under in 2018. She then partnered with gold coin broker Marc Lubaszka, who owes over $2M to former coin investors, has been investigated by the FBI, is the CEO of private jet company Fly Private X and is selling gold again through Buy Gold Brightly.

Public records show that Hadari Oshri formed Trade Safe Pro, LLC in Florida in January 2021 and also listed a Malibu address on the official company filings. In a text message, her former accountant demanded that Oshri remove his name from company filings. — *Public records show that Hadari Oshri formed Trade Safe Pro, LLC in Florida in January 2021 and also listed a Malibu address on the official company filings.*

Hadari Oshri and Marc Lubaszka’s elaborate PPE scheme will be exposed publicly

The next installments of Vargas’s investigative series exposing Oshri’s and Lubaszka’s PPE scheme will be released in the next weeks.

The news reporter is represented by civil attorney and US Veteran Michael Creamer, with offices in Orange County.

Since July 2021, Oshri is represented by criminal defense attorneys Veronica Barton and Paul Adkins, with offices across Los Angeles and Orange County.

*Court records show Vargas's attorney, Michael Creamer, argued Oshri filed a restraining order to stop the journalist from reporting on Oshri's role in PPE scams. The judge sided with the reporter.*

*This story is being updated as more information becomes available. Last update: April 2, 2022.

**Read the Minute Order of the CHRO ruling here. Read the Minute Order of the anti-SLAPP legal win against Hadari Oshri here.

***If you’d like to share your testimony or story, please contact the reporter at aitana_investigations@protonmail.com or connect with her on Facebook. All emails are checked for legitimacy, spam and viruses and deleted when suspicious malware is detected.

****Since Hadari Oshri filed a meritless case against Investor News contributor Aitana Vargas and had previously declined to provide written comments or go on a recorded interview, it is our policy not to seek further comments from the entrepreneur. Oshri is always welcome to reach out and agree to the proposed interview terms. The same policy applies to her former Counsel, John Tamborelli, Lubaszka and Patrick Seller.

*****Some relevant documents and screenshots about this series are available at archive.org. This story is being updated as more information becomes available.

******Story originally published in Investor News on October 13, 2021. Pinche aquí para leer el reportaje original en Investor News, un medio aliado a La Cronista. Lea Parte 1, Parte 2, Parte 3, Parte 4, Parte 5, Parte 6, Parte 7, Parte 8, Parte 9. Pinche aquí para leer la serie completa.