Jeff Bezos received sexist joke, possible taunts from Saudi crown prince before divorce: Report
MBS reportedly taunted Bezos about his then-secret affair
The crown prince of Saudi Arabia texted Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos a sexist joke and a photo of a woman who looked like his secret lover months after allegedly hacking Bezos' smartphone, The Daily Mail reported.
Both men are making headlines after a report from The Guardian that Bezos' mobile phone was hacked in May 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message from a personal account belonging to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS. They had exchanged numbers in April 2018 after meeting a few times, according to The Mail.
JEFF BEZOS OR MBS? WHO IS WORTH MORE
"Arguing with a woman is like reading the software license agreement. In the end you have to ignore everything and click I agree," MBS texted Bezos via WhatsApp, according to The Mail.
The message was accompanied by a photo of a woman who looked like Lauren Sanchez, Bezos' secret girlfriend at the time. They are now publicly dating after being outed by the National Enquirer while Bezos was married to ex-wife, MacKenzie Bezos.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, right, along with American news anchor Lauren Sánchez poses for photographs during a blue carpet event organized by Amazon Prime Video in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Bezos' legal team has alleged that Saudi Arabia and David Pecker, publisher of the National Enquirer, worked together to obtain dirt on him, The Mail reported. The Saudi Embassy has pushed back.
"Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos' phone are absurd. We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out," the Embassy wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
UN EXPERTS: JEFF BEZOS PHONE HACK SHOWS LINK TO SAUDI PRINCE
United Nations experts called for an "immediate investigation" by the United States and others into information they received that suggests that Bezos' phone was hacked after receiving an MP4 video file sent from the Saudi prince's WhatsApp account.
Bezos went public about the incident after allegedly being shaken down by the National Enquirer tabloid, which he said threatened to expose a "below-the-belt" selfie he'd taken and other private messages he'd exchanged with a woman he was dating while still married.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Jeff Bezos pose for a photo during Bezos' visit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Nov. 9, 2016. (Pool / Bandar Algaloud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
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A forensic report that was commissioned by Bezos and shared with the U.N. experts assessed with “medium to high confidence” that his phone was infiltrated on May 1, 2018, via the MP4 video file.
Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by Saudi agents inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey in October that same year. The Post was highly critical of the Saudi government after his killing.
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| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 198.38 | -4.50 | -2.22% |
“The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the Crown Prince in surveillance of Mr. Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia,” the independent U.N. experts said.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.