Ronn Torossian

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Ronn Torossian

Image Torossian.jpg
Ronn Torossian
Born 1974 The Bronx, New York
Nationality American
Occupation Public relations executive
Known for Founder of 5WPR
Spouse(s) Zhanna (divorced)
Education State University of New York at Albany
Website 5wpr.com profile

Ronn David Torossian (born 1974) is an American public relations executive. He founded the New York firm 5WPR (5W Public Relations), was its chief executive until 2022 and is now its chairman.[1] He was formerly a Betar activist and a spokesman for World Likud. In the 1990s he helped lead a campaign to settle Jews on Palestinian land in occupied East Jerusalem. He later represented right-wing Israeli politicians, Zionist and settler organisations, foreign governments and a string of controversial figures in the circle of Donald Trump.[2][3] He stepped down as chief executive in March 2022 after it emerged that he secretly owned Everything-PR, a trade news site that 5WPR used to attack its rivals.[4]

Early life and activism

Torossian was born in 1974 and raised Jewish by a single mother in the Bronx. His father is Armenian.[3] He attended Stuyvesant High School.[3] As a boy he came under the influence of Rabbi Avi Weiss, an organiser of protests on Jewish causes. As a teenager he joined Betar, the Zionist youth movement linked to Likud, and he later became its national president while at the State University of New York at Albany.[2][3] In 1994 he and Weiss were arrested and briefly detained in Oslo while protesting against the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Yasser Arafat. In 1995 he rushed the stage at Pat Buchanan's campaign launch in Manchester, New Hampshire. Later that year US Park Police removed him from the Million Man March, where he had gone to protest against Louis Farrakhan.[3]

Yerushalayim Shelanu and Har Homa

After college Torossian moved to Israel. There he co-founded Yerushalayim Shelanu ("Our Jerusalem"), a group that, The Forward reported, "worked to push Israeli Arabs out of Jerusalem".[5] He escorted bulldozers to Har Homa, in occupied East Jerusalem, to claim land for Jewish settlement in what the paper called "a Palestinian area". He told the paper: "The PLO or P.A., or whatever the gangsters call themselves today, have no place in Jerusalem."[2] He then worked as a spokesman for World Likud in Jerusalem in 1997–98.[6]

Political views

In 2008 Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic reported Torossian as saying: "I think we should kill a hundred Arabs or a thousand Arabs for every one Jew they kill." He added: "If someone from a town blows himself up and kills Jews, we should wipe out the town he's from, kill them all." Goldberg called this "a Nazi idea".[3][7] In 2009 Goldberg said that Torossian "represents the hardest right on the Israeli spectrum".[5] He told The Forward in 2004, when he organised a fundraiser for George W. Bush's re-election: "I vote as a Jew, and I vote on Israel."[2]

Torossian has long been close to Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), and the ZOA has been a client of his firm.[3][2] Klein told Politico in 2018: "Ronn Torossian understands the truth of the Arab-Islamic war against Israel and the West better than anyone."[3] Torossian has also acted as a spokesman for Aish HaTorah in New York.[7] Citing the Tampa Bay Times, Sarah Marusek and David Miller reported that Aish HaTorah had close ties to the Clarion Fund, which made the anti-Islam film Obsession.[7]

Public relations career

Before founding his own firm, Torossian held two PR jobs:[6][3]

He filed articles of organisation for 5W Public Relations, LLC in New York on 4 December 2002, and the firm began trading in 2003.[8][3]

His early clients included:[2][3]

Later clients included:[3]

In 2008 a 5WPR executive was caught impersonating critics of the kosher meat company Agriprocessors online.[9] The firm's clients, foreign-agent work and the 2008 affair are covered in detail at 5WPR.

By 2017 the firm claimed $28 million in annual revenue.[3] In 2022 it claimed 275 employees.[1] Torossian is also a backer of the private-jet company JetSmarter and has served as its chief business officer.[3]

Foreign agent filings

Torossian signed his firm's registrations under the Foreign Agents Registration Act:

  • the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, 2003–04, including lobbying on Capitol Hill against the US State Department's travel warning on Israel[10]
  • Travel Alberta, 2012[11]
  • the Republic of Turkey, 2017, as a subcontractor to Amsterdam & Partners[8]

The Turkish contract angered many Armenian Americans. Torossian replied: "I am Jewish... I do not and never have considered myself to be Armenian." In 2010 he had helped organise a protest outside the Turkish consulate in New York after the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla.[3] In 2017 he also briefly did PR work for Nick Muzin, the Republican strategist then working for Qatar. In 2015 Torossian had denounced a firm working for Qatar as a "D.C. PR Agency for Sharia Law".[3]

Mueller grand jury

In December 2017 Torossian testified before the grand jury convened by the special counsel Robert Mueller. The testimony concerned an approach in 2012 by Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, who allegedly asked him to take money from offshore accounts for undisclosed lobbying on behalf of the government of Ukraine. Torossian says he turned the offer down. In an article for the Daily Caller he nevertheless called the Mueller investigation a "witch hunt".[3]

Links to the Trump circle and New York politics

Politico described the range of Torossian's links in 2018:[3]

  • He is a friend of Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen.
  • He is a friend and confidant of Felix Sater.
  • In 2014 he brokered a meeting between Cohen and leaders of the Tea Party Patriots, then a client.
  • Roger Stone once gave a speech at the 5W offices.
  • Sam Nunberg worked out of 5W's offices in 2009–10.
  • In 2015 he and the taxi owner Gene Freidman arranged a meeting at Freidman's home between Mayor Bill de Blasio and the police union leader Ed Mullins.
  • He gave $2,700 to Hillary Clinton's campaign in June 2016 and nothing to Trump's.

In December 2021 the mayor-elect Eric Adams cancelled ten fundraisers, including one Torossian was due to co-host. This followed a Daily Beast report in which advisers and former staff said they were worried that the "toxic" Torossian had inserted himself into Adams's inner circle.[12]

Everything-PR and step-down as chief executive

On 16 February 2022 Crain's New York Business reported that Torossian secretly owned Everything-PR, an ostensibly independent PR news site. Its "reviews" praised 5WPR and its clients and attacked rival firms and executives, and some of its articles carried pseudonymous bylines. Former employees also told the paper of "belittling comments, verbal abuse and ridicule".[1] Two days later Torossian admitted that he owned the site. He apologised for a "lack of transparency", an apology that Richard Edelman called "hollow and unbecoming".[1] The board of the New York chapter of the Public Relations Society of America said:

"In addition to being a cowardly and blatant violation of PRSA's Code of Ethics, Ronn's actions are a stain on our profession and undermine our role as guardians of facts and integrity for those we serve."[1]

On 4 March 2022 he told staff that he was stepping down as chief executive: "I have become a distraction and the team deserves the freedom to operate in a context free of noise - noise I personally created." He stayed on as founder and chairman, and Dara Busch and Matt Caiola became co-chief executives.[4][13] As of 2026 the firm's website still lists him as founder and chairman of "5W, the AI Communications Firm".[14]

Writing

Torossian is a regular contributor to the settler-aligned Israeli outlet Arutz Sheva (Israel National News). In a 2014 column he argued that "the organized American Jewish establishment will get even further away from Israel" because it was "moving further and further away from Judaism". He also wrote that "the State of Israel will increasingly look to Evangelical Christians and other allies for support".[15] He has written on public relations for The Algemeiner and the New York Observer.[16][17] In the Observer he also highlighted allegations against Alan Dershowitz, who was then the lawyer for Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto. Dershowitz called him a "despicable human being".[3]

His 2011 book, For Immediate Release, describes how he built 5WPR. It offers case studies of brands, and holds up the Chabad website Chabad.org as a model for organisations.[18]

Legal cases and allegations

Criminal matters

No criminal charge or conviction against Torossian has been reported. His appearance before the Mueller grand jury was as a witness.[3]

Civil cases

  • Melissa Weiss (2008): Torossian sued his former human resources director, Melissa Weiss. She alleged breaches of employment law, and Gawker published an abusive email he had sent her.[3][19]
  • Dror Zoreff (2013): the long-term partner of Torossian's late mother sued him for libel over anonymous online posts, some of which the complaint traced to an IP address associated with Torossian. The case was settled.[3]
  • Former employee (2013): a former employee alleged that he had hired her believing she was Jewish and then began "a relentless campaign of hostile and abusive treatment" when he learned she was not. The case was settled in 2015.[3]
  • RonnTorossian.com: Torossian was reported to buy the domain names of rival publicists and of the Gawker journalist Hamilton Nolan. Another publicist then bought RonnTorossian.com and posted an insulting image on it. Torossian sued him for $20 million, and the case was settled without money changing hands.[3]

Allegations

  • Agriprocessors (2008): the Agriprocessors deception was admitted by the firm, not by Torossian personally, who blamed a "senior staff member".[9] In 2012 the blogger Shmarya Rosenberg of Failed Messiah alleged that Torossian had used false names to post comments attacking Rabbi Pinto and defending Chabad and 5WPR.[20]
  • Pinto affair (2011): it was alleged that Torossian and the Israeli businessman Ofer Biton had tried to extort Rabbi Pinto by threatening to expose his finances in the press unless he put Torossian on retainer. Torossian denied this and was never charged. Pinto, Biton and the congressman Michael Grimm were later jailed on separate charges.[3]
  • Stuyvesant hoax (2014): after New York magazine investigated the Pinto affair, Torossian brought two students to the Observer. They revealed that they had duped New York with a story about a Stuyvesant pupil who had made $72 million trading stocks.[3]

Family

Torossian was raised by his mother, who has since died. His father is Armenian.[3] He was married to Zhanna, from whom he is divorced. He has daughters, whom he educates in Jewish day schools.[3][4]

See also

Contact

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Ronn Torossian Departs as 5WPR CEO, But Remains Chairman", PR News, 4 March 2022.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Nathaniel Popper, "Publicist Scores With Rappers, Right-wing Politicians", The Forward, 2 April 2004.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 Ben Schreckinger, "Meet the pro-Trump PR guy at the center of the Mueller probe — and everything else", Politico, 30 April 2018.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Sean Czarnecki, "Read the resignation letter of Ronn Torossian, who stepped down as 5WPR CEO after he used a secret news site to bash rivals", Business Insider, 4 March 2022.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Nathaniel Popper, "Birthright Scored for Picking P.R. Firm Tied To Scandal, Hard Right Politics", The Forward, 19 August 2009.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Michael Bush, "Defiant Torossian takes pride in pushing buttons", PRWeek, 18 February 2007.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Sarah Marusek and David Miller, "The brothers who funded Blair, Israeli settlements and Islamophobia", Middle East Eye, 13 August 2015.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 5W Public Relations, LLC, Exhibits A and B to Registration Statement (registration no. 6434), with articles of organisation, Foreign Agents Registration Act filing, US Department of Justice, 25 May 2017.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Meat Company's P.R. Firm Acknowledges Responsibility of 'Senior Staff Member' in Online Deception", The Forward, 11 July 2008.
  10. ↑ 5W Public Relations, LLC, Exhibits A and B to Registration Statement (registration no. 5561), Foreign Agents Registration Act filing, US Department of Justice, 19 May 2003.
  11. ↑ 5W Public Relations, LLC, Supplemental Statement (registration no. 6109), FARA filing, 23 January 2013.
  12. ↑ Corbin Bolies, "NYC Mayor-Elect Cans Fundraisers After Daily Beast Report on ‘Toxic’ PR Exec", The Daily Beast, 11 December 2021.
  13. ↑ Justin Rohrlich, "'Toxic' PR Guru Ronn Torossian Steps Down After Daily Beast Exposé", The Daily Beast, 4 March 2022.
  14. ↑ 5W, "Ronn Torossian, Founder & Chairman", 5wpr.com, accessed 5 November 2026.
  15. ↑ Ronn Torossian, "American Jewish Commitment to Israel & Judaism", Arutz Sheva, 17 March 2014.
  16. ↑ Ronn Torossian, "Public Relations and the Art of War", The Algemeiner, 7 October 2011.
  17. ↑ Ronn Torossian, "PR Firms Ought To Say 'No' Once In a While", Observer, January 2015.
  18. ↑ "PR Guru Lauds Chabad", COLlive, 3 October 2011.
  19. ↑ Hamilton Nolan, "The Story Of Ronn Torossian", Gawker, 2008.
  20. ↑ Shmarya Rosenberg, "5WPR: Once A Sockpuppet, Always A Sockpuppet", Failed Messiah, January 2012 (Wayback Machine capture, 15 February 2012).
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