A weeping Amber Heard said on Thursday that she had received death threats all throughout the "painful" defamation trial brought by her former husband, actor Johnny Depp.
"I am harassed, humiliated, threatened every single day," the Aquaman star said on the final day of witness testimony in the sometimes excruciating trial, which is in its sixth and final week.
"I receive hundreds of death threats regularly, if not daily, thousands since this trial has started, people mocking my testimony about being assaulted."
Depp filed the $50 million suit against Heard after she wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post in which she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse”, although she never named him.
In spite of losing a similar case in the UK, where it is significantly easier to win defamation cases, he chose to file a second case against her.
The trial is being held in Fairfax, Virginia, even though both stars live in Los Angeles, California.
Depp claims he filed there because it is the home base to the newspaper but chose not to sue the publisher, which he did in his former losing effort.
He may have thought he would get an advantage there because of the weaknesses in Virginia’s anti-SLAPP law, which is supposed to protect free speech.
SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation and 32 states and the District of Columbia have laws against them.
Using the law, Depp’s lawyers made a motion to have Heard’s $100m counter-claim against the actor tossed out.
The counter-suit claims his then-lawyer, Adam Waldman, defamed the actress when he called her abuse allegations “a hoax”.
Judge Penney Azcarate rejected the motion.
Defence witnesses supported Heard’s claims that she has been the target of a years-long hateful social media campaign by millions of fans of the Ed Wood star.
"I just want Johnny to leave me alone,” Heard said for the second time since the trial began.
Earlier in his testimony, Depp admitted to writing in a 2016 text that Heard was "begging for total global humiliation" and "she's gonna get it”.
He said it was written in anger when he learnt she was alleging that he physically abused her.
Depp also texted his friend, actor Paul Bettany, “Let’s burn Amber!!!”
Bettany wrote back: "I'm not sure we should burn Amber. She is delightful company and pleasing on the eye.
"We could, of course, do the English course of action and perform a drowning test. Thoughts? You have a swimming pool."
Depp replied: "Let's drown her before we burn her!"
Then Bettany replied: "My thoughts entirely! Lets be certain before we pronounce her a witch."
Bettany was not called by Heard’s attorneys although the text exchange was read in court.
A parade of the couple's mutual friends testified that Depp could be "loving and generous" but that he could also become "a monster" when intoxicated or under the influence.
"Alcohol would bring out a very ugly side of him”, which Depp acknowledged, and though he said it was “exhausting” to get sober, he had vowed to do so for Heard, testified iO Tillet Wright, a friend of the couple.
“But he resented it — he didn’t want to be,” Wright said.
The only friend to come out for Depp was supermodel Kate Moss, who dated Depp in the 1990s.
Speaking for less than two minutes, Moss dispelled accusations that Depp pushed her down a staircase while on holiday at Jamaica's Golden Eye resort.
"It was raining and I slipped," Moss said by video link.
In his final plea to the jury, Depp said it had been "unimaginably brutal" to listen to the "heinous" and "outlandish" accusations that he could ever be violent.
"No human being is perfect, certainly not, none of us, but I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse," he said.
Depp said he brought legal action because he needed to address "what I've been carrying on my back, reluctantly, for six years."
The trial began on April 11, with closing arguments scheduled for tomorrow, May 27.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20ASI%20(formerly%20DigestAI)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Quddus%20Pativada%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Artificial%20intelligence%2C%20education%20technology%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%243%20million-plus%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20GSV%20Ventures%2C%20Character%2C%20Mark%20Cuban%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
