Tuesday, May 19, 2009

really, REALLY?

apparently that piece of WTF!?! is seriously lodged in my ear because i'm not sure i heard this one correctly...

"Donald Trump sues writer for calling him a millionaire not billionaire"

The real estate mogul has launched a lawsuit against Timothy L. O'Brien who questioned Trump's net worth in article in 2005.

Trump claims his reputation and brand were damaged and that he missed out on business opportunities because of the story.

A judge said that she would rule within two months on whether the case should be dismissed before it gets a chance to go to trial.

Neither man was in Superior Court in Camden for a hearing on Monday.

Trump said O'Brien, now an editor at The New York Times, knew the lower estimates were not true and that it was malicious to include them.

In a December 2007 deposition in the case, Trump says his true net worth is harder to calculate because it includes the value of the Trump brand.

"My net worth fluctuates and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings," he said. "Even my own feelings."

In the same deposition, Trump acknowledged that he sometimes exaggerates – including when he said, after the book's publication, that his business was doing as well as ever.

"You wouldn't tell a reporter you're doing poorly," he explained. "If I'm doing poorly, I'd rather not comment."

On Monday, Trump's lawyer, William Tambussi, told Judge Michele Fox that O'Brien knew that including a value of Trump's worth would get attention "so he could sell more books".

O'Brien's lawyer, Andrew Ceresney, told the judge that Trump's claims were false because the net worth numbers were not made maliciously, because Trump can't prove that he lost business as a result – and that there's nothing hurtful about the claim.

"If someone came in here and said, 'Mr Ceresney, you're worth $150 million to $250 million,' I think I'd feel pretty good," he told the judge. "I wouldn't call that defamation."

what a pompous, self-important asshole!
wasn't this guy bankrupt at one point? and now he's quibbling over a prefix? quibbling over a prefix for MORE MONEY? makes me want to throw up a little.
i hope he chokes on his own toupe and dies...

No comments: