The world’s wealthiest person, Jeff Bezos, is not making the fact that he has a net worth of US$200 billion hold him back from going after his girlfriend’s brother to collect a US$250,000 debt.

According to gossip website TMZ, Bezos and Michael Sanchez remain at war, with the Amazon founder suing the latter for allegedly hiding money to avoid handing over US$254,404 the court ordered he pay for legal bills after an earlier defamation suit was thrown out.

Sanchez, whose sister Lauren Sanchez’s intimate text messages with Bezos were leaked to the media before the relationship was public, had sued the billionaire for defamation for allegedly smearing his name by accusing him of being responsible for the leak.

The quarter-million dollar legal bills had been accumulated by Bezos and his private investigator, Gavin Becker, during the defamation case.

Bezos is now claiming that, after he lost the case, Michael Sanchez transferred ownership of his US$2.5-million home in West Hollywood, California, to a shell company in order to avoid having the property or the proceeds of its sale seized.

A representative for Michael Sanchez told the Seattle Times that Bezos’ suit was classic “bullying” while his attorney, Tom Warren, told TMZ: “The world has been accusing Mr Bezos of not paying his fair share of taxes, exploiting Amazon employees, and spreading fake conspiracy theories about the future king of Saudi Arabia. You can now add bullying his future brother-in-law to the list.”

He added: “As Mr Bezos well knows, Mr Sanchez’ attorneys are aggressively pursuing an appeal of the anti-SLAPP judgment.”

SLAPP stands for ‘strategic lawsuit against public participation’ and SLAPP suit (or intimidation lawsuit) is intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.

“If successful, Mr Sanchez will owe Mr Bezos nothing. Nevertheless, earlier this week, Mr Sanchez authorised his team to coordinate with Mr Bezos’ counsel concerning payment of the judgment. Had Mr Bezos’ attorneys bothered to reach out to Mr Sanchez’ counsel before filing a lawsuit against him, they would have known that to be the case.”