By Samantha Sault, Chairman and Chief Editorial Officer of Qorvis
Last month, Qorvis published an inquiry from Bloomberg’s Ben Bartenstein and our response – a move that many said was unconventional (and maybe unwise). Why publish a journalist’s questions instead of just responding?
The inquiry made damaging false claims about our work, including accusations that we had taken sanctioned money or intentionally failed to file FARA when required. Neither is true. As I explained, we can trace these accusations to the misinformation ecosystem that’s been targeting companies working in the commodities sector.
But is it misinformation, or malice? Or maybe something in between: a journalist mining misinformation to create his own narrative for a more provocative story?
We’ll be unpacking this further. But in the meantime, here are the facts.
We meet with dozens of people around the world every week to source physical intelligence. We gather and report data to our clients, just as journalists do for their audiences. And while our audience may be smaller than Bloomberg’s, our clients and the journalists we engage with daily know we understand the nuance.
It’s well established that we represented Mr. Ghazi Abualsaud, who engaged us in 2022 to support the growth of the company (Wellbred) to which he was just named CEO, and that we represented Coral Energy’s MBO to become 2Rivers in 2024. None of this is new information, especially to Bloomberg journalists, who received numerous press releases and pitches from our colleagues inviting them to interview associated individuals and cover their company news.
Clients come to us because they want their companies structured compliantly and then want to communicate that to the public. As Land Offset, a defense and geopolitical intelligence platform, posted about this situation, “Democratic legal and commercial systems depend on access to counsel, advocacy, and the ability to answer allegations.”
And finally: We do not represent Hossein Shamkhani or Etibar Eyyub. We do not take sanctioned money. We file FARA and LDA when required.
And we’re happy to answer questions from journalists.
Ben Bartenstein’s latest inquiry is below without further comment.
