By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Philadelphia-based law firm Dechert said on Thursday that a pair of U.S. lawsuits accusing it of using hired hackers to win in court have been resolved without any admission of liability.
Dechert and others, including U.S. public relations operatives and a private investigator, were sued in federal court in Manhattan in 2022 by aviation executive Farhad Azima, who accused them of organizing the hack and leak of his emails.
A related suit in North Carolina filed against another private investigator, Nicholas Del Rosso, made similar claims.
Dechert had already settled with Azima last year, but the proceedings against other parties, including Israeli private investigator Amit Forlit, lawyer Amir Handjani, and New York public relations firm Karv Communications, were still ongoing.
Legal filings show motions to dismiss the New York and North Carolina lawsuits with prejudice were made late on Wednesday.
In a statement, Azima said: “I am thrilled and feel vindicated by the outcome.”
Neither Dechert nor Azima answered questions about how precisely the suits had been resolved, whether there had been a fresh settlement, and, if so, what its terms were.
Representatives for Del Rosso, Forlit, Karv, and Handjani did not immediately return messages.
Azima was originally found liable for fraud by a London court in 2020 in connection with his dealings with a Middle Eastern investment fund, a case that drew heavily on private emails that had been mysteriously leaked on the internet ahead of trial.
Following a Reuters investigation into how Indian hackers regularly stole emails to sway court cases, Azima accused Dechert, the fund’s then-law firm, of being a party to the leak.
He subsequently got his UK judgments thrown out.
Forlit, the Israeli private eye accused by Azima of being a key member of the plot against him, is currently fighting extradition to the U.S. on separate cybercrime charges. He has previously denied hacking.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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