To: readers@forbes.com
Conversation: Your Listing for Khalid bin Mahfouz
Subject: Your Listing for Khalid bin Mahfouz
To the Editor: Your statement that Khalid bin Mahfouz, #214 on Forbes’ list of “The World’s Richest People,” won a court battle against me in England is misleading. I chose not to defend myself in England because my book, Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It, was never published there and because England provides substantially less protection for free speech than does the United States, where I live and work. As a result, Mahfouz, a Saudi Arabian citizen who has threatened to bring or has brought numerous libel suits in England, obtained a mere, unopposed default judgment against me — hardly the hard-fought victory on the merits that your article implies.
I have since sued Mahfouz in federal court in New York for a declaratory judgment that he could not prevail on the libel claim or enforce his English default judgment against me in the United States, the only place where my book was ever published. Although the lower court dismissed my case on a technical ground, I have filed an appeal that will be heard in November.
The families of 9/11 victims have also sued Mahfouz in New York in connection with the terrorist attacks that day. Your description of Mahfouz should be modified to reflect that litigation about his alleged connections to terrorism is still very much alive.
Sincerely,
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld