Open Letter to Mike Bloomberg & John Micklethwait as Bloomberg journalists assist Nick Leeson & Seth Freedman as they seek to “destroy me” in a campaign paid for by a fraud

Earlier today I revealed how fraudulent company Amazing AI paid Nick Leeson of Barings infamy and Seth Freedman, who was hired to harass the women Harvey Weinstein raped, to destroy me to protect that fraud. At the heart of a vile dirty tricks campaign were Bloomberg journalists Meg Short and Will Shaw who liaised with Freedman on when Amazing AI would issue releases and who promoted a defamatory dossier created by Freedman to a number of PLC CEOs.  Bloomberg prides itself on its ethical journalism and thus I have written to its founder Mike Bloomberg and its editor in chief John Micklethwait with six demands or at least requests. Suffice to say in reaching out to Bloomberg I have had no feedback or response at all. And so I publish this letter outside the paywall. And the next time anyone from Bloomberg boasts about ethical journalism tell them to stick this letter, you know where...

Bloomberg journalists Meg Short and Will Shaw and a sickening smear campaign organised by Nick Leeson of Barings infamy and Harvey Weinstein’s paid harasser Seth Freedman

Sirs

I have today published an article detailing how two of your London journalists worked hand in glove with Nick Leeson of Barings infamy and Seth Freedman who harassed Harvey Weinstein’s victims for Mr. Weinstein, to “destroy me”. Freedman and Leeson were each paid £15,000 to do this by Amazing AI, a fraudulent company I had exposed and where investors have now, despite the best efforts of Ms. Short and Mr. Shaw, lost 100% of their money.

I have exposed many frauds over the years. The BBC’s Panorama credited me with exposing Neil Woodford. The Financial Reporting Council thanked me for exposing AIM’s largest fraud Quindell. If you wish to check with the FCA, contact NAME REDACTED to whom I report fraudulent activity on a more than weekly basis. He will tell you that I am very much on the side of right.  

My allegations against Freedman, Leeson and your reporters are not fantasy. I have today published the content of a whatsapp group “ProjectTW” set up by Freedman and involving Leeson, Amazing’s CEO Paul Mathieson and his PR man Zak Mir which details every step of this conspiracy including payments made.

If you read the whatsapp group you will see how the men planned and then did use publicizing my mother’s suicide when I was eight to destabilize me, how they planned a “sting” phone operation to provide material for your reporters, how they wanted the Police to go after me with a bogus claim that I was harassing Mathieson and above all how they would spread defamatory, though easily disprovable lies about me into the market to destroy my reputation and they did this via your employees.

Within 4 days of the first conference call of this group and Meg Short, Mathieson had weaponized the suicide of my mother. His lawyers Rosenblatts, whom he said would sue me for ten billion pounds, quit. His AQSE advisor Guild quit. No other AQSE advisor would act for him (indeed two had parted company with him in the three months prior to Guild leaving which any sane reporter would see as a red flag) . His shares were suspended. The world walked away but team Bloomberg continued to spread defamation about not only myself but others including Peel Hunt, with calls made by Ms. Short.

The defamatory allegations were easily disprovable. Ms. Short claimed that there was a “rumour” that I burned down my office to avoid an FCA dawn raid. Yet there was no FCA raid ever and the fire’s true origin was widely reported. She alleged that there was a “rumour” I shorted stocks on AQSE. But you physically cannot short AQSE stocks as anyone with any market knowledge would know. It went on and on. She claimed “rumours” that companies could stop me writing bad things about them by buying one ninety nine quid ticket to an event I organise each year, Sharestock. But she could not cite one example of this. And Ninety nine pounds! Really!

So why did a Bloomberg employee continue to spread what she termed “rumours” but were in fact the contents of Freedman’s dodgy dossier, even after the suicide tweet? The whatsapp chat shows Freedman admitting that he has acted before against me, trying to silence my expose of a £200 million fraud Zoetic because he was paid to do so. Zoetic’s shares have slumped from 72p to 0.5p – my expose was correct. That campaign of harassment was flagged up on Shareprophets.com, a website Ms. Short claimed to have read. Did that not raise any questions with her about how her source operated?

Despite this and his record of activities for Weinstein, as documented by Ronan Farrow, Freedman appears to be a big contact of Will Shaw, taking him out to lunch and feeding him stories.

How is this ethical journalism? Bloomberg has, via these two reporters, allowed itself to become an enemy of journalistic freedom at a time when it has never been in more danger and Bloomberg has allowed itself to become an enemy in the fight against fraud.  Hence, I ask of you a number of things:

1. That Bloomberg checks to see if via William Shaw it has run other stories supplied by Freedman or his Red Mist firm and if any of these stories have, in fact, threatened or silenced a whistleblower or journalist. And it verifies what hospitality your employees have received from Freedman or Red Mist.

2. That Bloomberg issues a public statement apologising for the actions of its employees, naming all those involved, and explaining how it will tighten the ethical grounding of the London newsroom as well as reminding reporters of the importance of basic fact checking of sourced material.

3, Ms Short obtained an interview with me and with various CEOs under false pretences, claiming to the CEOs that she wishes to discuss their amazing companies and to me emailing me “Hello Tom, I hope you are well. I am a reporter at Bloomberg News and it would be great to catch up with you to chat about AIM and Acquis. I understand you are an influential voice in that community. When suits you for a catch up? Would be great to do it in person; are you in London any time soon?”

In all cases she soon launched into what she termed “rumours” but was in fact the Freedman/Leeson dodgy dossier of smears. My ordeal lasted an hour.

Journalists should not obtain interviews under false pretenses as that is simply unethical. Bloomberg needs to remind all staff of that.

4. That Bloomberg contact everyone who your employees spoke to, to apologize in writing for its part in smearing a journalist whose only crime was to expose fraud and to admit that your employees were acting on defamatory allegations provided by Nick Leeson and Seth Freedman because they were paid to do so by a fraudulent company.

5. That Bloomberg hand over all correspondence between Short and Shaw and Freedman/Leeson/Red Mist to the FCA as well as recordings of Shorts interviews as it starts an enquiry into this clear threat to whistleblowing and journalism in London. 

6. I very much doubt that you have any idea how my family life has been affected by the campaign that Leeson and Freedman have subjected me to and which your journalists have played a material part in. I only discovered the details of this conspiracy last week so for almost a month I have simply received reports of how I have been smeared by your reporters and worried about what lies your organisation plans to print. Given those involved and the threats they have made I have genuine reason to fear physical harm and via my excellent MP this us now being raised at the highest levels with the Police here in North Wales. I am not threatening legal action in the US courts with an attorney offering its services on a Conditional Fee basis but an organization that took ethics seriously would need no prompting to compensate me for what it has put me through.

I make no requests about the careers of anyone at Bloomberg. I know what I would do but that is your call.

I am,

Yours sincerely

Tom Winnifrith
www.ShareProphets.com  .
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