By William Dove

Copyright ibtimes

I’ve explored the unusual interest Newsweek has developed in covering a private Christian college known as Olivet University (OU) in a feature for the University Herald last year.Readers of Newsweek who’ve followed that coverage might be forgiven for assuming that OU is a hive of criminality, with claims of human trafficking, forced labour and a range of other crimes.This week, however, federal authorities confirmed that OU has no case to answer. Which begs the question of how an allegedly respectable news outlet got it so wrong and what consequences they may face for their materially damaging actions.Pure CoincidenceBefore we answer those questions, it’s worth examining the exact nature of Newsweek’s coverage and whether there was a shred of truth to any of it or if any of their dire predictions came to pass.Coincidentally, Newsweek’s intensified interest in OU, with which it is associated, began in early 2022, shortly after Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad threatened to drop a “nuclear bomb” on the group.Newsweek’s editorial team has previously claimed that it is completely independent of Pragad’s influence and that its coverage of OU is about holding its proprietors to account.Our previous University Herald article on this makes clear that this is obvious nonsense. Unless Newsweek believes itself to be the property of OU, no proprietor is being held to account, least of all Dev Pragad.Broadly speaking, Newsweek’s coverage of OU falls into three categories: guilt by association, circular reporting and conspiracy theory. All three categories appear to have the singular purpose of aiding Pragad in his legal cases.Guilt by associationOn at least two occasions, Newsweek has used this technique in its reporting. The first was in the case of Frank Lan, a former student at Olivet while Pragad was serving as a dean, who was charged with possession of counterfeit goods.Lan’s case never came to trial as he returned to China, however what’s noticeable in Newsweek’s coverage is that despite OU having no role whatsoever in the alleged illegal acts, the article was peppered with references to the university. It would be rather like covering the conviction of Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling and connecting it to his alma mater, Harvard Business School, which Pragad also attended on a certificate program.More recently, Newsweek covered Great Commission University (GCU), an institution run by people including former OU staff. That story simply told us that GCU was going through an accreditation process with a third-party agency. The article was then padded out with an extensive list of alleged wrongdoing by OU and its stakeholders. Given that very little news was present in the article, it appears very much to be an attempt to blacken the name of GCU by association and sabotage its accreditation efforts.Circular ReportingAs detailed in my previous piece on this issue, the modus operandi of Newsweek reporters, when dealing with Olivet and others too, is to spread allegations to an interested party and then report on the shocked reaction that they themselves have created.A case in point is a Newsweek story about New York State’s decision not to renew OU’s license to operate in the state.A Freedom of Information request made to the New York State Education Department by Olivet in 2022 revealed an email exchange between Newsweek reporter Naveed Jamali and NYSED officials regarding unsubstantiated claims of money laundering, trafficking, and visa fraud.Jamali then reported on the decision not to renew, which he himself had instigated.The same trick was played in California, where Jamali contacted the state Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) to look into OU’s operations, specifically citing the same unsubstantiated claims of money laundering, trafficking, and visa fraud. OU’s BPPE license was subsequently rescinded, and again, Jamali reported on the fact. OU continues to operate legally in California under religious exemption provisions.Jamali and his Newsweek colleague Alex Rouhandeh have also been found to be behind a number of attempts to contact organisations or accrediting bodies connected with OU in an attempt to damage OU’s standing with those bodies.But federal authorities recently repudiated the notion that any charges of money laundering, trafficking, and visa fraud will be brought against Olivet or any of its associated individuals or affiliates. This contradicts what Newsweek has been reporting and spreading to OU’s regulators for the past three years and counting.Conspiracy TheoriesRemember how back in 2016, when Donald Trump was first elected, it was only a matter of time before he’d go to jail for colluding with Russia, according to mainstream media? Remember how four years later, Trump actually won the election, remained as president and Joe Biden was really just a hologram? The patriots are in control! The walls are closing in!Similarly, in April 2024, Newsweek reported that a criminal case against OU, related to the human trafficking accusations, could be coming soon. In fact, in the beginning of September 2025, Homeland Security confirmed that it had concluded its investigation into OU and that the university had no case to answer.In an September 30, 2025 public statement, Olivet University President Jonathan Park said, “I commend the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for rightly issuing a declination to bring any charges against Olivet University or any individuals associated with Olivet. This decision affirms what we have consistently maintained: the accusations against our institution were false and unfounded.”Apparently taking aim at Newsweek and possibly referring to defamation suits filed by OU against the publication, Park went further:”Such bad actors are not simply adversaries of Olivet; they are a threat to society at large. When false reporting is weaponized to pressure government action, every citizen is placed at risk. When dishonest individuals exploit the visa system and then conceal their wrongdoing by blaming others, national security is weakened. When lies are repeated often enough, even without evidence, they endanger innocent lives and undermine democracy itself.”What’s it all in aid of?So why has Newsweek devoted such time and resources to such a niche project and why, having done so, has it done such an apparently questionable job?The answer is that Newsweek’s coverage is used as a weapon in Pragad’s personal war against Olivet. This broadly takes two forms.The first is that it is used to frighten current Olivet members and coerce them to join him and a network of other former members.Olivet members receive a call and are told that the Feds are coming any day and that they’ll be arrested if they stick with Olivet.Newsweek staff have joined in the threatening outreach. Jamali himself made one such threatening call to a law firm run by a member of Olivet. Newsweek subsidiary AdPrime’s finance manager, Sophia “Sophie” Jihee Yu, has been caught red handed reaching out to current and former Olivet students seeking to bolster her falsified testimony to federal agents. Newsweek CEO Dev Pragad himself has also been found to have made similar overtures to ex-Olivet students and members.The second form is that the constant bad coverage is used in the courtrooms up and down the land to sway judges in Pragad’s favour. Newsweek, Pragad, OU, IBT (which claims Pragad’s acquisition of Newsweek was fraudulent and therefore null) and other interested parties are currently locked in a range of lawsuits. Pragad and Newsweek regularly attempt to paint OU and anyone aligned with them as part of a conspiratorial RICO (“Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations”) cult group.OU does indeed have its shortcomings. The BPPE did identify areas in which OU needed improvement, some of which OU acknowledged and corrected, and others disputed.However, much that has been written about it in the last three years has proven to be heavily biased, unfair and arguably libellous. The human trafficking claims have been found to be completely without merit.The only remaining question is how much Dev Pragad can be permitted to get away with. Even leaving aside the question of Newsweek’s ownership, which is being decided in the courts, he has serious questions to answer.For one, as a former professor at OU, he must’ve known that the human trafficking allegations were completely bogus and yet somehow he was always “unavailable for comment” for journalists at the publication he purports to own.Secondly, claims that he has had no influence on the editorial decision to wage a misinformation campaign against OU are obviously bogus. Court filings evidence this, as does simple common sense. He has seriously compromised the editorial integrity of Newsweek.William Dove was a founder of International Business Times UK and is the director of NW Publishing UK Ltd.