A Little Saigon newspaper recently ordered to pay $4.5 million to a rival newspaper for defamation declared bankruptcy last week, saying it is financially infeasible for them to pay the judgment.
Hoang Duoc Thao, or Brigitte Huynh, publisher of the Vietnamese language weekly Saigon Nho, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court last week, claiming at least $4.7 million in unpaid debts.
(Click here to read the bankruptcy filing.)
Thao reported no more than $50,000 in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities.
In Dec. 2014, an Orange County jury ordered Thao to pay $4.5 million to Nguoi Viet Daily News, the largest and oldest Vietnamese language daily newspaper in the United States, for defamation and related damages due to articles she authored in 2012 accusing the newspaper of Communist sympathies.
In addition to the $4.5 million owed to Nguoi Viet, Thao owes $11,000 in unpaid attorney fees, $100,000 to creditors in Philadelphia and Houston related to other lawsuits, and more than $32,000 in unpaid credit card debt.
Contact Thy Vo at thyanhvo@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @thyanhvo.