THE bitter court battle between two Israeli brothers has given The Punch "plenty play" as they say.
Rami and Amir Weissfisch - both permanent residents of The Bahamas - are fighting over $100million. But Rami, 62, has told judges who have heard the case that "somebody is leaking information on him to The Punch". Rami often comes into court clutching a copy of Punch. And a seemingly paranoid Rami has waved a copy of The Punch in the air and told the judge: "They've been talking to The Punch about me again!" Appeal Court President Dame Joan Sawyer denied a request by Rami's lawyer to have the case heard in private "behind closed doors". Rami reportedly didn't want Punch reporting the proceedings on his appeal against a ruling by Justice Anita Allen on the case with his younger brother Amir, 48. But Dame Joan told Rami that details of the case "had already been in The Punch, the paper with the biggest circulation". Rami is reportedly concerned that certain details of the $100million dispute may cause problems for him with the IRS, or the U.S. taxman. Rami has a $20million house in Palm Beach, Florida. The two other Appeal Court Justices hearing the Weissfisch case along with Dame Joan are Ammanuel Osadebay and Hartman Longley. On one occasion some time ago, Justice Osadebay said during a court hearing: "The trouble with civil servants is that on Mondays and Thursdays they spend all day reading and talking on the point about the gospel according to The Punch. And on those two days, they don't do any work" That's the power of the paper, soaraway knock-out Punch, folks! Punch is a London-style popular quality tabloid. There are 125,000 loyal readers of each edition of The Punch. Dame Joan also had a bit of "biblical advice" for the warring Weissfisch brothers.
She told them to read Psalm 133 in the Bible, which says: "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" The case has been raging on for five years in courts in Nassau, London, New York and Geneva, Switzerland.
So far, the two battling brothers have reportedly spent $20million on legal fees in a bid to settle the dispute over $100million. The two brothers were 50-50 partners in Metal Resources Group (MRG) - a Bahamas-based company. The Weissfisch boys are thought to be worth $200 to $300million each.
Originally published in The Punch, 23 April 2009.
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