Judge orders former Overstock CEO to pay $1.7M damages

A federal judge in California has ordered former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne to pay $1.7 million in punitive damages to Hunter Biden for defamation. The ruling, issued on July 10, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson, concluded a years-long lawsuit over false claims Byrne made about the former president's son.

The case centered on statements Byrne made in a June 2023 interview with Capitol Times Magazine. In that interview, Byrne claimed Hunter Biden had reached out to the Iranian government in the fall of 2021 to arrange an $800 million bribe for the Biden family. The alleged scheme was tied to the potential unfreezing of $8 billion in Iranian assets. Byrne republished these claims on social media the day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, implying a connection between the alleged bribery and the terrorist assault.

In his 25-page ruling, Judge Wilson found the evidence "clear and convincing" that Byrne had engaged in intentional misrepresentation with a conscious disregard for Hunter Biden's rights. The judge noted that Byrne repeatedly reposted the defamatory article and encouraged his followers to promote it, actions that went "far beyond mere...