Hit Squad Alex Rouhandeh, Naveed Jamali, Rattled by Ownership and Defamation Lawsuits Against Newsweek and CEO Dev Pragad, Anxiously Lash Out

Photo of Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad Left and newsweek Congressional Correspondent Right Photo of Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad Left and newsweek Congressional Correspondent Right

Newsweek has lost its cool. The anxious publication's recent "bombshell" report — about a series of already-dismissed and settled lawsuits — garnered a total of six viewers. Not surprising, for an outlet that has long abandoned all journalism ethics in the face of recent fraudulent ownership, tax fraud, ad fraud, defamation, and sexual harassment scandals rocking its leadership to the core.

NEWSWEEK'S ARTICLE ABOUT OLIVET ASSEMBLY IS NONFACTUAL AND SELF-CONTRADICTORY

On Friday, Newsweek published an article about thrice-dismissed court complaints filed by aggressive e-commerce lender, 8fig — a company online users call "predatory" — in a failed attempt to bash Newsweek's legal opponents, as part of a series of attacks on their Christian religious values.

To this end, Newsweek's story attempted to falsely portray the Olivet Assembly as part of a "fraud" and "racketeering" network. Not only was this assertion wrong and based on nonfactual claims from an opportunistic lender's lawsuit; the statement was also ironic given that Newsweek's CEO Dev Pragad is himself currently accused in a lawsuit by The International Business Times of taking over Newsweek ownership using fraudulent means.

Newsweek's fake news article failed from the start because the "lawsuit" that it reported on was already settled between the real parties of the lawsuit, which tellingly did not include Olivet Assembly. Thus, the article was a non-story that contradicted the premise of its own sensationalistic title.

NEWSWEEK TRIES TO DETRACT ATTENTION AWAY FROM ITSELF

Meanwhile, as Newsweek faces a growing litany of problems, it appears to be attempting to detract attention away from itself by writing these ever-more-desperate stories.

Newsweek has been repeatedly caught publishing fake news targeting religious and non-profit groups its owner, Pragad, personally dislikes. The newsroom has unethically failed to challenge its own CEO on controversial practices and statements, such as his documented texts saying he would launch a "nuclear" media attack on his religious opponents, and that he would mow them down like "puppies before a machine gun."
Pragad has been the target of a tax fraud investigation in recent years. During those years, Pragad was also allegedly at the center of ad fraud allegations over click-bot activity according to IBT's complaint.
Pragad hired a former Reuters editor who was accused of sexual harassment. Pragad subsequently whitewashed the editor's record with a legal "vetting" declaring the editor innocent of all harassment, even though he was fired from Reuters for the very behavior he was "cleared" of by Pragad.
Newsweek faces an ongoing defamation lawsuit over allegedly publishing false statements against Olivet University. Writer Naveed Jamali, who co-authored the most recent story, is a co-defendant in the defamation lawsuit as well.
Jamali has in the past had to explain his defense of the Muslim Brotherhood — an organization labeled a terrorist organization by several countries. At the same time, he has written aggressive attack articles against Christian organizations using ethically questionable journalistic methods, including lobbying state agencies to take actions against a Christian university.
Jamali has also posted a video on TikTok admitting that he is motivated by fear of being fired if he does not write these negative articles against Olivet University to protect Pragad's ownership of Newsweek.
Newsweek also mentioned an "ark" theory that anti-American communists in Japan used to try and attack Olivet University. They were punished two times by Japanese courts for defamation and forced to recant all their media falsehoods.

NEWSWEEK'S STORY OMITTED FACTS AND USED FAULTY PREMISE

Olivet University responded to HNGN's request for comment on the September 1st report with a statement: "The report is about a civil legal matter in which OU was never served." This fact was not mentioned in Newsweek's story — unsurprising given its bias.

The university further stated that the action has been "resolved in its entirety" without the school even having knowledge of the settlement terms, further underscoring how unrelated these matters are to the university, despite Newsweek trumping up the matter as "racketeering." Recent similar lawsuits filed by 8fig "were outright dismissed in Texas state court for lacking merit," the university stated.

In fact, sources say Newsweek threatened to publish the story sooner, but delayed because its defense lawyers needed to scour the article to protect its reporters from potentially engaging in more reckless reporting that would make it liable for even more defamation lawsuits from Olivet University. The Olivet Assembly says it is looking into its legal options and considering its own defamation suit against Newsweek.

Meanwhile, Newsweek uncritically wrote its article based on a lawsuit filed by a money lender that has a 1.8 out of 5-star rating on Glass Door, about which users online warn: "Do not trust." The shark lender "will give you a growth plan" and then "modify it in the middle so that you owe a lot all at once," said a Reddit user. Newsweek writer Jamali unashamedly leveraged the complaint of 8fig, a company that 80% of Glass Door reviewers would not recommend to a friend because of "zero transparency," "poor leadership," "poor company culture," and "not qualified managers."

Newsweek parrots, without any cross checking, a completely defunct complaint from a loan company that has poor consumer credit — which online users claim charges over 40% interest. The lender's complaint rehashed many points Newsweek itself previously filed in a sensational $30,000,000 claim against Olivet that was completely rejected by trial and appellate courts. Such types of claims against Olivet and other entities mentioned in Newsweek's article have now been thrown out in both state and federal courts across the nation, but despite this fact, Newsweek unearths the dead, faux claims as its key article source to exaggerate a settled matter to try and attack its foes.

Other sources said it was unreasonable for Newsweek to request comments from "parties" who had not even received the complaint because the case had already ended. Paradoxically, by trying to leverage an unserved, untested, and already-dismissed complaint for its story, Newsweek only revealed how desperate its leadership and editorial teams are. It appears that as Newsweek's legal woes pile up, its newsroom is facing increased pressure to conjure up a problem for the Olivet Assembly, even by reporting on a defunct and settled legal complaint having nothing to do with the Christian denomination.

NO COMMENTS FOR NEWSWEEK

Once again, no one responded to Newsweek's request for comments, not even the lenders whose lawsuit Newsweek was attempting to hype. "Why would anyone respond to Newsweek — the magazine that already shot its credibility long ago," said one source familiar with the matter.

Ultimately, the article has no news value, other than the first word of the headline: "Settlement." That may be the one thing Newsweek finds elusive as it fights its own battles in court.