Former CEO of TRG loses landmark defamation case in the US

Former TRG CEO Zia Chishti has lost a landmark defamation case against Tatiana Spottiswoode, a former employee of an associated company, and her lawyers in the Washington DC District Court in the United States.

Chishti had filed the lawsuit against Spottiswoode and her legal representatives, demanding $500 million in damages.

Previously, Spottiswoode had won an arbitration against Chishti in which he was found liable for sexual harassment, assault and battery, prompting the latter to pay more than $5 million to the former.

Chishti was forced to resign from all his positions at TRG and associated companies in late 2021 following a high-profile hearing in the US Congress in which Spottiswoode detailed how he sexually harassed and assaulted her during a business trip.

Spottiswoode’s testimony led to the passage of a bipartisan law in the US banning forced arbitration in employment cases involving sexual assault and sexual harassment. Spottiswoode stood behind President Biden when he signed this bill into law in 2022.

In late 2022, Chishti sued Spottiswoode and her lawyers in a US court, demanding $500 million in a defamation case for their testimony before Congress.

Shortly thereafter, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee posted the sexual harassment arbitration award against Chishti on the U.S. House of Representatives website.

In a scathing ruling dismissing Chishti’s case, Senior Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court dismissed all of Chishti’s claims, stating that his defamation complaint is “a not-so-thinly-veiled attempt to overturn the outcome of an arbitration that Chishti’s rejection rejected. report of events and ruled in favor of Spottiswoode”.

The judge further ruled that Spottiswoode’s statements to Congress, as well as statements made afterwards, enjoyed absolute immunity and constituted protected speech.

The ruling described Chishti’s defamation complaint as “protracted, salacious and inappropriate” and criticized his legal approach.