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National Enquirer Sold to Group Including Indicted Ex-MoviePass Chairman

The scandal-riddled magazine’s new owner was charged with defrauding investors last year.

The National Enquirer has finally been offloaded by its parent company after years of controversy. The notorious magazine accused of blackmailing Jeff Bezos and using “catch and kill” tactics to suppress embarrassing stories about Donald Trump is being sold to a joint venture between Vinco Ventures and a new company created for the purchase called Icon Publishing, according to The New York Times. Icon Publishing was set up by Ted Farnsworth—one of the executives indicted by the Justice Department in November for allegedly defrauding investors over the imploded MoviePass subscription service. Farnsworth, who declined to comment on the MoviePass charges to the Times, told the paper the deal was worth “a little less” than $100 million, describing the magazine as a “sleeping giant sitting there not taking any advantage of the digital side.”