Florida Judge Unseals Documents in $60M Defamation Suit Over 'War Dogs' Movie

Jonah Hill, left, and Miles Teller, right, in the film “War Dogs,” directed by Todd Phillips, inspired by a book by defendant Guy Lawson, which the plaintiff claimed defamed him. Photo: Warner Bros Pictures.

A newly unsealed court document is shedding new light on a $60 million lawsuit by the son of a former Albanian prime minister over the Hollywood movie "War Dogs," starring Jonah Hill and Miles Teller.

U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke in the Southern District of Florida Friday unsealed a December 2018 ruling dismissing a defamation case against author Guy Lawson, whose book inspired the movie. Other defendants included the book's publishers and former international arms dealers Alexander Podrizki and David Packouz.

The book, "Arms & The Dudes: How Three Stoners from Miami Beach Became the Most Unlikely Gunrunners in History," tells the story of Packouz, Podrizki and Efraim Diveroli, who grew up in Florida and ended up at the helm of a global gunrunning enterprise.

Their story inspired the 2016 movie "War Dogs," starring Hill and Teller as pot-smoking friends who won a $300 million contract to supply the Afghan Army with ammunition through their company AEY Inc.

But in the June 2017 complaint, plaintiff Shkelzen Berisha, son of former Albanian prime minister Sali Berisha, claimed the book slandered his name and incorrectly linked him to corrupt arms dealings involving Albanian mobsters

— all in an effort to sell more books and movie tickets.

The suit asked for $60 million in damages, claiming Lawson's primary sources Podrizki and Packouz told tall tales about their exploits, including one about the "corrupt" prime minister's son depicting Berisha's meeting with Packouz and Podrizki to negotiate ammunition prices with mobsters.

Berisha claimed this never happened and that he had never associated with the Albanian mafia as the story claimed. He accused Lawson of "recklessly" steaming ahead without properly checking facts and sought an order forcing publishers Simon & Schuster Inc. and Recorded Books Inc. to remove all defamatory references from the book.

Berisha's Miami lawyer Jeffrey W. Gutchess deferred comment to co-counsel Jason M. Zoladz in Santa Monica, who did not respond to requests before deadline.

The defendants denied the allegations, standing by Lawson's research and stressing his book disclosed that its primary sources had admitted making false statements and forging documents in the past.

Packouz, Podrizki and Diveroli pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States after the government found they had sold Albanian-made ammunition that had been repackaged, and shoddy Chinese weapons from the Cold War era. Diveroli received a four-year prison sentence, while Packouz and Podrizki were put under house arrest.

Click here to read the full complaint

U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke. Photo: Melanie Bell/ALM.

Cooke dismissed the case in December 2018, but her ruling's contents remained unknown until Friday as the court had earlier deemed some of material confidential.

The parties later agreed to lift those confidentiality designations —revealing a ruling that found Berisha hadn't proved actual malice and hadn't shown the defendants held major doubts about their story or knew it was probably false.

According to the ruling, Albanian media has widely reported on Berisha's alleged attempt to corrupt arms deals and other schemes, involving an energy utility company and the country's lottery, but Berisha has never been charged.

Not all the press has been negative, the order said, as Berisha has received positive attention through his relationship with a former Miss World contestant.

As parties had labeled the suit a matter of public concern, Cooke considered whether the plaintiff was a public figure, as precedent says they "voluntarily expose themselves to increased risk of injury from defamatory falsehoods concerning them" and have greater ability to counteract claims via the media.

But Berisha, labeling himself a private citizen, argued he hadn't voluntarily exposed himself to the spotlight.

The court disagreed.

"For better or worse, plaintiff has attained a level of 'fame or notoriety in his community' that few other figures could likely match," the order said. "Indeed, a survey produced by plaintiff shows that he has an astonishing 100 percent name recognition among Albanians."

Defense counsel Elizabeth A. McNamara and John M. Browning of Davis Wright Tremaine in New York did not respond before deadline.

Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for defendant and book publisher Simon & Schuster, said he was pleased with the ruling.

“We are grateful that the court decided so decisively in favor of Guy Lawson and Simon & Schuster in this matter," Rothberg said. "We remain confident that it should be upheld by the appellate court."

 

Read the full court order:

 

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