National Enquirer would have paid $ 200,000 for private texts from Bezos

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com Inc., listens to a discussion at the Economic Club of Washington in Washington, DC, USA on Thursday, September 13, 2018.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the publisher of National Enquirer had paid $ 200,000 to get intimate texts between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his mistress Lauren Sanchez. American Media, the publisher of the supermarket tabloid, allegedly paid the money to Michael Sanchez, Lauren's brother.

The findings of the Review, attributed to people familiar with the subject, correspond to the conclusion drawn by private investigators working for Bezos at the beginning of February. These investigators reportedly discovered that Michael Sanchez had disclosed the texts to Enquirer, although they apparently did not find who could have paid them.

Bezos said that American Media had threatened to publish explicit photos of him unless he stopped investigating how Enquirer had obtained his private exchanges and that he has publicly stated that his coverage It was not for political purposes.