Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad Faces Shameful Setback as Magazine's Misguided Lawsuit Against Olivet University Totally Dismissed

On the 28th, the Supreme Court of the State of New York dismissed the lawsuit filed by Newsweek against Olivet University, World Olivet Assembly, and other parties. The court determined that Newsweek improperly filed the lawsuit in violation of its bylaws despite clear objections from its shareholder.

The ugly Newsweek lawsuit failed in its attempt to rope in unrelated religious institutions and the judge saw no reason to heed the lawsuit's claim charging religious parties with outrageous amounts of damages upwards of $30 million. The lawsuit came after Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad first failed to coerce a shareholder with threats of a "nuclear" article series attacking that shareholder's religion because the shareholder refused to hand over Newsweek ownership to Mr. Pragad.

A motion to dismiss is only granted after the court fully assumes all allegations in a complaint are true and then the allegations still fail to establish a proper legal claim. Therefore, Newsweek's failure to establish any claim against Olivet University represents a shameful rejection by the court of all Newsweek's incredulous assertions against the university.

The dismissal of Newsweek's lawsuit also presents an insurmountable setback for Mr. Pragad's covetous goal of owning Newsweek outright.

Leading up to this decision, a series of Newsweek articles criticizing Olivet University were written from a fake news perspective, with such sensationalized headlines as "human trafficking" and "labor trafficking." HNGN's investigation revealed that these were written for the benefit of Mr. Pragad, to provide leverage in his fight to take shares away from another Newsweek shareholder.

The court also cut Mr. Pragad's salary by 95% in November, after he had unilaterally raised it without boardroom permission, again in violation of the company's bylaws. Before the cut, Mr. Pragad had set his salary and bonuses at an expected $4,705,456 -- a figure difficult for the average American to even fathom. He now has to make do with $225,000 per year.

Mr. Pragad has also shown a pattern of giving raises and promotions to reporters who wrote and continued to write attack articles against Olivet University. The magazine's unprecedented ethical breaches also include its CEO personally seeking to dig up dirt from disgruntled former students to leverage for his greedy goal, and the magazine suing the very party it had covered negatively with numerous hit pieces for the CEO's gain. Editor Nancy Cooper and content officer Dayan Candappa have yet to answer for the profound editorial indiscretions committed under their purview.

Newsweek's lawsuit was seen by many observers to be an attempt to drag the religious beliefs of a shareholder into a business dispute. In this regard, the lawsuit was widely perceived as both improper and ineffective, due to the fact that religious affiliations should not be used to pressure business partners to give up their shares. Religious discrimination and bias concerns plaguing Newsweek and its newsroom, including editor Nancy Cooper and writers Naveed Jamal and Alex Rouhandeh, were also voiced. Newsweek's articles appeared biased against Christian religious beliefs and affiliation.

However, the court sliced through Mr. Pragad's deceptive power play and dismissed the suit outright.

Although Olivet University is most certainly allayed by the decision, Mr. Pragad's woes are not cured in the least.

With only $225,000 for Mr. Pragad live on, it has yet to be determined if Mr. Pragad can maintain the luxurious lifestyle he had grown accustomed to before the court struck down his personal funding scheme. Meanwhile, Mr. Pragad has to pay for any further litigation personally, as the court barred Mr. Pragad from using company money to fund his lawsuits, and he must pay for all litigation going forward using money out of his own thinning pockets.

The Newsweek lawsuit dismissal also does not relieve Newsweek from the growing number of potential defamation lawsuits available to university and others for the outrageous lies the magazine has published in its fake news series.