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<h6 class="trb_ar_hl_t"><span style="color:#170202;"><strong>Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, fired chief foreign affairs correspondent over prospective business deals with </strong><strong>an international businessman who was </strong><strong><span style="color:#170202;">o</span>ne of his key sources </strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="trb_ar_hl_t"><span style="color:#170202;"><strong>Jay Solomon, was offered a 10 percent stake in a fledgling company, Denx LLC, by Farhad Azima</strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="trb_ar_hl_t"><span style="color:#170202;"><strong> Azima, an </strong><strong><span style="color:#170202;">I</span>ranian-born aviation magnate is involved in shady transactions, globally, including who has ferrying weapons for the CIA and brokering deals among Middle East potentates </strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="trb_ar_hl_t"><span><strong><span style="color:#170202;">Some of the deals discussed involved less than stellar transactions, including one involving arms sales to foreign governments</span></strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="trb_ar_hl_t"><span style="color:#170202;"><strong>An investigation by the AP uncovered emails and documents linking Solomon to Denx</strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="trb_ar_hl_t"><span style="color:#170202;"><strong>It&#8217;s not clear that Solomon ever received money or formally accepted a stake in the company</strong></span></h6>
<h6 class="trb_ar_hl_t"><span style="color:#170202;"><strong>WSJ said Solomon violated his ethical obligations as a reporter,&#8221;as well as our stand</strong><strong>ards&#8221; </strong></span></h6>
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<h6><strong><img class="alignnone wp-image-199401" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/jay-solomon4.jpg" alt="Jay Solomon4.jpg" width="660" height="408" />The Associated Press uncovered emails and documents linking Solomon to Denx, a newly minted company in the world high risk global services</strong></h6>
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<p>The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday fired its highly regarded chief foreign affairs correspondent after evidence emerged of his involvement in prospective commercial deals, including one involving arms sales to foreign governments, with an international businessman who was one of his key sources.<br />
The reporter, Jay Solomon, was offered a 10 percent stake in a fledgling company, Denx LLC, by Farhad Azima, an Iranian-born aviation magnate who has ferried weapons for the CIA.<br />
It was not clear whether Solomon ever received money or formally accepted a stake in the company.<br />
&#8220;We are dismayed by the actions and poor judgment of Jay Solomon,&#8221; Wall Street Journal spokesman Steve Severinghaus wrote in a statement to The Associated Press. &#8220;While our own investigation continues, we have concluded that Mr. Solomon violated his ethical obligations as a reporter, as well as our standards.&#8221;<br />
<img class=" wp-image-199402 alignleft" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/jay-solomon3.jpg" alt="Jay Solomon3.jpg" width="362" height="363" />Farhad Azima was the subject of an <a href="https://apnews.com/4a4b6e9dfc0949e698ee0ada284414ed/'Worth-killing-over':-How-a-plane-mogul-dodged-US-scrutiny" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP investigative article</a> that was published on June 20.<br />
During the course of its investigation, the AP uncovered correspondence,[emails and text messages], between Azima and Solomon, as well as an operating agreement for Denx dated March 2015, which listed an apparent stake for Solomon.<br />
As part of its reporting, the AP had asked the Journal about the documents appearing to link Solomon [photo, left], and Azima.<br />
The relationship was uncovered in interviews and in internal documents that Azima&#8217;s lawyer said were stolen by hackers.<br />
&#8220;I clearly made mistakes in my reporting and entered into a world I didn&#8217;t understand.&#8221; Solomon told the AP on Wednesday. &#8220;I never entered into any business with Farhad Azima, nor did I ever intend to. But I understand why the emails and the conversations I had with Mr. Azima may look like I was involved in some seriously troubling activities. I apologize to my bosses and colleagues at the Journal, who were nothing but great to me.&#8221;<br />
Two other Denx partners, incidentally ex-CIA employees Gary Bernsten and Scott Modell, told the AP that Solomon was involved in discussing proposed deals with Azima at the same time he continued to cultivate the businessman as a source for his stories for the Journal.<br />
Bernsten and Modell said Solomon withdrew from the venture shortly after business efforts began and that the venture never added up to much. They provided no evidence as to when Solomon withdrew.<br />
The correspondence reviewed by the AP, tens of thousands of pages covering an eight-year span, contained more than 18 months of communications involving the apparent business effort.<br />
Some messages described a need for Solomon&#8217;s Social Security number to file the company&#8217;s taxes, but there was no evidence Solomon provided it.<br />
In October 2014, Solomon wrote to Azima in a text message: &#8220;Our business opportunities are so promising.&#8221;<br />
In an April 2015 email, Azima informed Solomon about a proposal for a $725 million air-operations, surveillance and reconnaissance support contract with the United Arab Emirates that would allow planes to spy on activity inside nearby Iran. Solomon was supposed to ferry the proposal to UAE government representatives at a lunch the following day, the email said.<br />
&#8220;We all wish best of luck to Jay on his first defense sale,&#8221; Azima wrote to Solomon, Bernsten and Modell.<br />
Under the proposed UAE deal, Azima&#8217;s firms were to manage specially equipped surveillance planes to monitor activity in Iran, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.</p>
<h6><strong><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-199403" src="https://konniemoments.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/farhad-azima4.jpg" alt="Farhad Azima4.jpg" width="960" height="668" />Iranian born aviation magnate Farhad Azima allegedly made business overtures to WSJ reporter Jay Solomon. The reports didn&#8217;t confirm if Solomon took him up om the offer</strong></h6>
<p>In another message from October 2014, Solomon asked Azima whether he had told a mutual friend about their business plans.<br />
&#8220;Hell no!&#8221; Azima replied.<br />
The emails track the evolution of Solomon&#8217;s relationship with Azima which began professionally, as the reporter cultivated the businessman as a source of information about Iranian money in a Georgian hotel deal and other matters, before it turned into a business partnership.<br />
A review of Solomon&#8217;s published work over the past four years indicated Azima never appeared by name in the newspaper.<br />
The hacked materials also demonstrate that Azima cultivated close relationships with fellow Western and American journalists, including those at the AP, and frequently communicated with them by phone, text and email. None appeared to involve the same level of personal involvement or referenced potential business deals.<br />
Over decades, Azima has flitted between different worlds, flying weapons to the Balkans, selling spy gear to Persian Gulf nations, dealing with a small Midwest bank and navigating Washington&#8217;s power circles.<br />
In an April 2016 memo, a public relations firm he worked with, Prime Strategies, suggested Solomon could be called upon to &#8220;write a feature story about Farhad&#8221; to help combat negative coverage.<br />
In May 2015, Bernsten, using an email under the alias &#8220;The Vicar&#8221;, told Azima of a plan to help a dissident member of the Kuwaiti royal family instigate public protests over corruption with the goal of bringing down the nation&#8217;s government. Though the Kuwaiti plan involved Denx, Solomon was not included in the emails and said he knew nothing about it.<br />
It does not appear the plans were ever executed, as 87-year-old Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah remains in power.<br />
According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/4a4b6e9dfc0949e698ee0ada284414ed/'Worth-killing-over':-How-a-plane-mogul-dodged-US-scrutiny">AP report</a>, it was unclear whether any of Denx’s plans were ever put into action. The company was disbanded last year, according to corporate registration paperwork filed in Florida.</p>
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Wall Street Journal correspondent, Jay Solomon fired over prospective private business deals with one of his sources
