Al-Jazeera America, the offshoot of the popular Arab World 24-hour news network closed its doors this past month after failing to gain any substantial viewership in the United States. However in a report from the New York Times, viewership was just a sampling of the network’s problems that included massive yearly losses and now a pending lawsuit from the former vice president of network finance.
According to the New York Times, the network’s former executive vice president of finance Anand Gupta is suing the defunct operation, and the details of his suit reveal that in 2013 the network had a net operating loss of $250 million. That number grew to $335 million in 2014.
Gupta claims that he was promised promotion to CFO by the network’s CEO Ehab Al Shihabi, who was replaced in May 2015. His suit claims Al Shihabi’s replacement Al Antsey failed to live up to the deal
In addition to these tremendous losses, The Wrap reports the suit also claims the network forked over $11,000 a month for Al Shihabi even after he left the company.
Other problems for the network included a report earlier in 2016 that accused former Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning of taking HGH, it’s ties to the royal family of Qatar and that country working some 1,200 workers to death building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup. Not to mention allegations of anti Semitism and sexism as well.
h/t: The Wrap