On Thursday morning (Jan. 18), law enforcement officers raided Newsweek and its parent company, Ibt Media, due to an on-going investigation that began over a year ago, Fox News, the New York Post, and the Outline reported.

Several people told the New York Post that law enforcement was taking photos of several servers in both Newsweek and IBT Media offices and that they didn’t download any files but were analyzing the companies server serial numbers.

The search warrant details

Those associated with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office went to the New York City offices of Newsweek Media Group to investigate the company's computer servers to acquire technological information in relation to the servers.

Newsweek gave the DA's agents access to the company’s servers for technical-related examination that is allowable within the boundaries of the law. No specific records regarding the company's server content or anything else on those servers, including employee data, was taken and Newsweek was assured by the DA's office that the search in question was not in relation to any content-related issues.

The Outline reported that employees stated that the law enforcement looked to be from the New York Police Department, however, a spokesman from the New York Police Department stated that none of their officers was involved but that it was an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney office. The Manhattan DA spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

Due to the unexpected raid by law enforcement, employers were deceived into thinking that the raid had something to do with a white-substance that had been sent via mail to Exec. News Dir. Ken Li, back in December 2017, in which they were informed, that it was nothing but a false alarm.

IBT and Newsweek’s financial problems, fake news reporting

IBT Media was established in 2006 by Etienne Uzac and Jonathan Davis. IBT suffered a financial setback last December when the Internal Revenue Service placed a tax-lien against Etienne Uzac, to the tune of over one-million dollars. Interestingly enough, a shadowy South Korea priest of a Christian College had been linked to IBT Media, although it does not appear that this priest has any investment in IBT.

News of this raid comes on the heels of a report that Newsweek created and published that was blasted on social media outlets in which the story stated that President Donald Trump could be having an issue with erectile dysfunction (ED). His latest released a medical report stating that he takes, Propecia, a drug that helps hair-loss. Newsweek, once a prominent publication with credible stories, has been plagued with problems. Wherein 2016 it had to correct 20 news stories and in 2017 it had to admit to over 50 mistakes, including where it had to retract a news story that deceptively described the Las Vegas mass shooter Stephen Paddock’s girlfriend livelihood with scandalous news data that turned out to be nothing more than “fake news.”

Jon Levine, the editor of TheWrap, was told by a Newsweek source that the culture within Newsweek had turned into a “toxic work environment” and has found itself producing content that was nothing more than “clickbait” news. What the future holds for Newsweek and IBT Media is uncertain and the DA investigators have declined a Fox News request for comments.
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