The Legal Bullies Club – The SLAPPers: Featuring Hadari Oshri

aitanavargas
hace 22 horas
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By Investor News/Aitana Vargas

Story originally published in Investor News on November 9, 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.

Hadari Oshri falsely accused award-winning news correspondent Aitana Vargas of being “a very dangerous woman” and a “corrupted reporter” in embarrassing legal petition

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*

Los Angeles (CA) – Self-proclaimed “successful” entrepreneur Hadari Oshri is not as legally untouchable as she probably thought she was. And she’s officially joined the ‘Legal Bullies Club’ for misusing California’s court system in a desperate attempt to silence a news correspondent and try to prevent the full publication of an investigative series: “A Special Report: The Harrowing Impunity of White-Collar Crime.”

By filing a frivolous restraining order against journalist Aitana Vargas and losing the anti-SLAPP court battle on September 13, Oshri became a member of the exclusive SLAPPers club, widely referred to as legal bullies who try to intimidate, silence and harass their critics exercising their rights of free speech on an issue of public interest or to communicate with the government.

*Screenshot of “The SLAPPIES,” an anti-award show for the most egregious serial SLAPPers each year.*

Whether Oshri will be nominated for the SLAPPies awards, which dishonor 2021’s most illustrious legal bullies, remains to be seen. But she seems to be an accomplished candidate to be nominated in this year’s edition, especially after falsely accusing Vargas of being a “very dangerous woman” and a “corrupted reporter.”

SLAPPs, or “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,” are often brought by millionaires, corporations with unlimited resources and other powerful interests against activists, critics, journalists and consumers.

However, what sets Hadari Oshri apart from most of her fellow SLAPPers is that she neither leads a powerful corporation nor is the successful entrepreneur she claims to be. Indeed, in court documents, she confessed that all of her past companies went out of business. The part that she forgot to mention is that she owes a bunch of money to a bunch of people.

Journalists may invoke anti-SLAPP protections when targeted by SLAPPers

In 2021, disgraced fashion fairy/PPE entrepreneur and current Mind Master mushroom supplement creator Hadari Oshri lost an anti-SLAPP motion to journalist Aitana Vargas. In court filings, the reporter's attorney alleged Oshri was involved in a PPE scheme alongside gold coin conman Marc Lubaszka. The Judge sided with the journalist and granted her anti-SLAPP motion after finding it was in public interest. Previously, Oshri had directed her attorney John Tamborelli to silence the reporter and one of her sources. Their legal bullying failed. — *A screenshot of Hadari Oshri’s public Facebook account*

According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), “in terms of reporting, news organizations and individual journalists can use anti-SLAPP statutes to protect themselves from the financial threat of a groundless defamation case brought by a subject of an enterprise or investigative story.”

California’s anti-SLAPP statute is considered one of the strongest in the country. It can also be invoked to strike a restraining order and entitles a prevailing defendant to an award of attorney’s fees.

But anti-SLAPP protections can also be invoked by activists, consumers and citizens exercising First Amendment rights on issues of public interest in a public forum, which may include social media posts, street protests and Yelp reviews.

A $23K judgment against Hadari Oshri expected soon

Indeed, according to a memorandum of costs that recently landed on the desk of Los Angeles County Superior court Judge Doreen Boxer, Oshri would have to pay the news reporter’s legal costs: A whopping $23,000.

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.*

Court records show that Oshri has not filed an opposition to Vargas’s motion for attorney’s fees. And while the reporter declined to comment on the potential judgment, she stated that “I’d rather just let the series speak for itself. Readers will soon have the opportunity to learn about Hadari’s business practices and draw their own conclusions.”

“No doubt Hadari needs a crash course on constitutionally protected speech and the First Amendment. More importantly, I had publicly stated that I’d file an anti-SLAPP motion if she continued her intimidation campaign against me and her victims. She ended up taking me to court and was met with an anti-SLAPP,” the reporter added.

Hadari Oshri’s former counsel pressured Aitana Vargas into quitting her media coverage

According to court documents, during 2021, the Spaniard was pressured multiple times into quitting her investigative work. Investor News had access to a cease-and-desist email that Oshri’s former attorney, John Tamborelli, sent her in February 2021 demanding that she stop reaching out and talking to sources. The email also threatened legal action against the reporter and one of her sources did they fail to comply.

Tamborelli was following orders from Oshri, whose email featured some memorable statements to the reporter and her source:

“You (Aitana) are putting your hands in places that is not belong to you !!!!!

You (Aitana) GOT to stop !!!!!

Also you you cucumber !!”

In a second email that Oshri sent to Vargas and her source the same day, the entrepreneur stated:

“This is officially !!! Attaching my new business as an opportunity what the fuck you contacting this guy Robert 80 years old Man that is doing my taxes !!!

You are crossing all the lines

Where should I serve your lawsuit Ariana

And Qucomber !!”

The journalist didn’t reply to any emails that Oshri and Tamborelli sent that day.

Exclusive documents obtained by this outlet also show that in June 2021, Tamborelli wanted one of Vargas’s sources (Fergal Furlong) to instruct her to remove all the information related to Oshri or Tamborelli and any articles mentioning Tamborelli, Oshri and Lubaszka, including the first part of Vargas’s exposé, which gave a voice to the victims of one of Lubaszka’s prior gold schemes for which he was never prosecuted by law enforcement nearly a decade ago.

The reporter took to social media to announce that she was not a party to the settlement agreement and would not be taking down any content. About two weeks later, Oshri filed against Vargas.

In response to Tamborelli’s cease-and-desist email and continued demands, the National Writers Union (NWU) sent him a letter demanding that he stop all intimidation attempts towards the female reporter.

“Hadari Oshri cornered me in every single possible way she knew how. Yet she failed,” Vargas said. “Fear tactics only work for so long, don’t they?”

Court documents reveal Hadari Oshri’s motive for filing a meritless restraining order against Vargas

Court documents filed September 3, 2021 by Vargas’s counsel, Michael Creamer, state that:

“It’s out of an acute sense of self-defense that Ms. Oshri has filed for a restraining order. In a brazen attempt to derail the publication of that future article, Ms. Oshri’s motives are exposed. Ms. Oshri has filed this action because she does not want the truth of her participation in PPE scams exposed.”

Creamer further writes: “While it’s true that Ms. Vargas never revealed to Ms. Oshri all of the information that she has compiled in order to write her article about Ms. Oshri, Mr. Lubaszka and their PPE scam, Ms. Vargas has never had a legal obligation to do so. Yet, Ms. Oshri takes great liberty and license to describe the limits of what Ms. Vargas has compiled and then assert –without any supporting authority– that Ms. Vargas’s efforts of investigation both support a civil harassment restraining order and bar Ms. Vargas from seeking the protection of the anti-SLAPP statute.”

*This story is being updated as more information becomes available. Last update: April 12, 2022.

**Read the NWU letter here. 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.