A US court has ruled that the Wprost must pay five million dollars damages to Malgorzata Cimoszewicz-Harlan for libel.
In 2005 Wprost published a series of articles titled “The Cimoszewicz conspiracy,” in which the weekly accused the daughter of the former prime minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz and her husband Russell Harlan of financial irregularities. According to Wprost, the daughter and her husband lent Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz 100,000 dollars so that he could buy shares in oil giant PKN Orlen for them and then sell them at a profit. The profit would then be placed in an account in the US.
The weekly accused the Cimoszewicz family of not having informed the US Tax Office about the transaction.
Malgorzata Cimoszewicz-Harlan and her husband took Wprost to court in South Carolina and later Chicago. In July, the court in Chicago ruled that the articles published by Wprost are untrue and defamatory and the weekly has to pay five million damages to the Cimoszewicz-Harlan couple. (mg)