Shkelzen Berisha V. Guy Lawson, Et
Case: 19-10315 Date Filed: 09/02/2020 Page: 1 of 37 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT __________________________ No. 19-10315 __________________________ SHKELZEN BERISHA, Plaintiff - Appellant, versus GUY LAWSON, ALEXANDER PODRIZKI, SIMON & SCHUSTER, INC., RECORDED BOOKS, INC., Defendants - Appellees. ____________________________________ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ____________________________________ (September 2, 2020) Case: 19-10315 Date Filed: 09/02/2020 Page: 2 of 37 Before MARTIN, NEWSOM, and O’SCANNLAIN,∗ Circuit Judges. O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge: We must decide whether the son of the former Prime Minister of Albania, who alleges that he was defamed in a book that accused him of being involved in an elaborate arms-dealing scandal in the early 2000s, may succeed in his defamation action against the book’s author and its publisher. I This case arises out of brief references to Shkelzen Berisha—the son of the former Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha—in Guy Lawson’s 2015 book Arms and the Dudes: How Three Stoners from Miami Beach Became the Most Unlikely Gunrunners in History. The book tells the supposedly true story of Efraim Diveroli, David Packouz, and Alex Podrizki, three young Miami, Florida, men who became international arms dealers during the early 2000s. A We recount the tale as it is presented in Lawson’s book. According to the book, in the early 2000s, Diveroli, a teenager in Miami, came up with a plan to open a business specializing in arms trading in order to fulfill defense contracts with the United States government.
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