April 17, 2024

Rottenberg Lipman Rich, P.C. has obtained a $25 million defamation judgment against the Russian state-owned television network Channel One Russia relating to the notorious poisoning death of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.  On April 15, 2024, Federal District Judge John Cronan of the Southern District of New York entered the Judgment.

After five years of litigation, RLR Partner Randy Sellier, together with co-counsel and noted defamation attorney Rodney Smolla, obtained the judgment against Channel One on behalf of their client, Dr. Alex Goldfarb. Although Dr. Goldfarb was close friends with Litvinenko, Channel One defamed Dr. Goldfarb by repeatedly claiming that Dr. Goldfarb orchestrated Litvinenko’s murder.  Judge Cronan awarded Dr. Goldfarb $20 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

Litvinenko famously died in London on November 23, 2006 shortly after meeting with several former KGB officers. Litvinenko was an ex-Russian intelligence officer and a high profile Putin critic who fled Russia in 2000.  He wrote several books critical of Putin’s Russia and worked as a consultant for the British Secret Intelligence Service.

The morning after Litvinenko’s death, Dr. Goldfarb, standing next to Litvinenko’s father, read a statement to the media that Litvinenko had written on his deathbed accusing Putin of ordering his murder.  Dr. Goldfarb had gained international prominence as a professor of microbiology, author, and human rights activist who had worked with, among others, Andrei Sakharov.

Years later, international attention again focused on Putin’s apparent role in directing international assassinations, including Litvinenko’s murder.  In March 2018, two Russian nationals, Sergei and Julia Skripal, were subject to an apparent assassination attempt in Salisbury, England under circumstances remarkably similar to Litvinenko’s death.  The British government accused Russia of conducting the Skripal attack and noted the similarities with the Litvinenko murder twelve years earlier. The Skripal matter precipitated significant expulsions of Russian diplomats from the U.K. and other nations around the world.

Channel One, serving as the Russian government’s mouthpiece, sought to deflect blame for the Skripal deaths as well as the Litvinenko murder.  Channel One, therefore, broadcast numerous statements implicating Dr. Goldfarb in Litvinenko’s murder and cover-up. Channel One has global viewership of over 250 million people.

Dr. Goldfarb immediately filed defamation claims against Channel One based on statements contained in several 2018 Channel One broadcasts. The statements stated or reasonably implied: (1) that Dr. Goldfarb murdered Litvinenko, (2) that Dr. Goldfarb murdered his own late wife to cover up his poisoning of Litvinenko; (3) that Dr. Goldfarb ran an unlawful business aiding Russian criminal asylum-seekers; and (4) that Dr. Goldfarb convinced Litvinenko’s wife to commit perjury at an inquiry conducted in the U.K.

Channel One was represented by Baker Hostetler’s Washington D.C. office and appeared and defended itself against Dr. Goldfarb’s claims for several years. Following the close of discovery, Channel One filed a motion for summary judgment which Judge Cronan denied in a lengthy well-reasoned decision reported at 663 F. Supp 3d 280 (S.D.N.Y. 2023). Judge Cronan then scheduled the case for trial in December 2023 but adjourned the trial until March 2024 based on Channel One’s representation to the Court that it had authority to engage in good-faith settlement negotiations. In February 2024, however, Channel One announced to the Court that it would participate no further in settlement efforts and would take no further action to defend the case.

Dr. Goldfarb then moved for a default judgment against Channel One and Judge Cronan held a hearing on April 10, 2024 to decide that motion. Based on the extensive factual record before him, and a careful consideration of the relevant law concerning liability and damages, on April 15, 2024 Judge Cronan issued his Judgment vindicating Dr. Goldfarb’s claim that he had been injured by Channel One’s repeated broadcast of defamatory statements blaming him for Litvinenko’s murder.