Call Out the Lawyers: Harvard Business Review is Being Sued

In August, Jonathan Lee Riches, a federal inmate who described himself as "also known as Bernard Madoff," filed an appeal to a case first dismissed in October 2009.

In a handwritten complaint, Riches alleges that Harvard Business Review and 22 of its editors, whom he names personally in the suit, are, among other things, responsible for Riches' cruel and unusual punishment at Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky., where he is held.

"I face imminent danger and Bodily, economic harm from Defendants collectively who are Media Editors who have continued to write articles of defamation of my character and they are violating my copyrighted trademarked name under the U.C.C. Uniform Commercial Code," Riches wrote.

He continued, "Defendants labeled me as a cyber Terrorist and wrote on their website that I was involved with the financing of the Mumbai Massacre in India at the Motel and that I hacked into the casino vault at MGM grand, they published in a Avon mail Catalog that I stole Identities of the Fortune 500 companies CEO’s and that I had secret links to Bernard Madoff where I hid millions in funds in Switzerland."

But a web search of HBR's website reveals no mention of Riches, though Madoff pops up more than a few times.

So really now, who the heck is this guy?

From prison, Riches has filed suit against numerous celebrities, politicians, and even entities that no longer exist. In addition to Steve Jobs, George W. Bush, and Perez Hilton, "Adolf Hitler's National Socialist Party" and the Roman Empire have faced suits from Riches, according to Wikipedia. He once sued NFL quarterback Michael Vick for "63,000,000,000 billion dollars"—a sum orders of magnitude greater than the worldwide GDP.

Though the appeals court has yet to rule, there's good news for Harvard; not surprisingly, many of Riches' previous suits have been dismissed. Plus, according to the original judge in the case: "Jesse Jame's motion to intervene [is] DENIED."

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.