SUPERCLUBS marketing vice-president Zein Issa told a Florida court it was malicious to suggest, as was done in an e-mail, that the hotel had supplemented its cash flow with drugs found on one of its boats.

“We found those drugs and we called the police,” Issa declared as she gave her deposition in the lawsuit filed by SuperClubs chairman and her father John Issa, in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit in and for Miami-Dade County.

Issa alleged that he was defamed in e-mails originating on computers in Florida, United States. The deposition was taken on June 3, 2009, a transcript of which was subsequently obtained by the Observer.

Attorney-at-law Gail McQuilkin of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton who represented the defendants, asked the SuperClubs vice-president if there was some truth to the claim that drugs were found on a boat — the Motor Vessel Zein — owned by her father. Issa answered ‘yes’ but added that it was the hotel which found the drugs and called the police.

McQuilkin: “But there were drugs on the boat?”

Issa: “There were drugs on the boat, but this (e-mail) statement implies that it was caught and it says is this how you supplement your cash flow, which implies that it was our drugs and that we were selling them and supplementing cash…our cash flow with them.”

McQuilkin: “Was there news articles about this…this incident?”

Issa: “Yes.”

(Issa’s attorney Joe DeMaria objected).

McQuilkin: “Did you see them?”

Issa: “Yes.”

McQuilkin: “On the top it says Sun Sentinel News. Did you review news articles about the incident?”

Issa: “I must have at the time (2000).”

McQuilkin: “How widely reported was that incident?”

Issa: “I don’t know. I know it was in the local press. Until you showed me this, I don’t have any recollection of it being in AP, but the article was very clear that we found the drugs, we suspended the men and we called the DEA (US Drug Enforcement Agency), I believe. There was never any accusation, any hint, any insinuation that we had anything to do with drugs on the boat, or that it was being used to supplement our cash flow. So anybody who would write this was writing it straight out of their brain with malicious intent because there was no basis to this.”

McQuilkin: “But there…somebody reading this article could have an honest belief that there was an incident with drugs on the boat, correct?”

(DeMaria objected)

Issa: “No.”

McQuilkin: “Why not?”

Issa: “Somebody reading which one, this or this?

McQuilkin: “The news article?”

Issa: “Somebody reading the news article would know that drugs were found on the boat. If they read the article, it says that SuperClubs said that routine checks are always done before a yacht leaves for dry docking. It was the first time drugs had ever been found aboard a SuperClubs-owned yacht said Jane Hobash, who is probably me. We have suspended the men, the resort is not under investigation, we’re just trying to figure out who put the drugs there. And if you wanted, there were other articles that were more detailed.”

McQuilkin: “They were more detailed. Somebody reading that a few years could have…form a belief that…that…that the boat owned by you, drugs were found on it?”

Issa: “That’s all they could…”

McQuilkin: “Right.”

Issa: “…come to the belief of.”

McQuilkin: “You expect them to research all the facts, pull police reports and do that before…

Issa: “It’s in the article. It says the resort…”

McQuilkin: “Are you saying that based…”

Issa: “…is not under investigation. We’re just trying to figure out who put the drugs there. And it said SuperClubs said Friday, routine checks are always done, which that clearly implies that we found it. It didn’t say, you know, it was sailing and it was found with drugs. So the article I think is quite clear, and any implication someone might want to make from reading this article would be someone with a malicious mind.”

McQuilkin: “So you’re saying that…that because the yacht wasn’t stopped, that’s what’s malicious about that?”

Issa: “No. I’m saying that when you read, wasn’t your yacht stopped with over 300 kilos of cocaine by the police, that statement is a lie.”

McQuilkin: “Well, a whole lie?”

Issa: “A whole lie.”

McQuilkin: “Okay, to me…”

Issa: “A whole lie. If you let me finish I’ll explain it to you.”

McQuilkin: “It was hashish oil and not cocaine?”

Issa: “That’s not even where I was focusing.”

(DeMaria objected)

To be continued