WASHINGTON – A US federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of former TRG Pakistan CEO Zia Chishti’s defamation lawsuit against former Afiniti employee Tatiana Spottiswoode and her lawyers, leaving a 2019 arbitration award against him unchanged.
The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected Chishti’s claims, including his request to overturn the arbitration award that had found Spottiswoode’s allegations credible and held Chishti liable for sexual misconduct.
The ruling comes months after Chishti settled a libel case against British newspaper The Telegraph in March 2025. Following the settlement, Chishti and his wife said it had cleared his name and that the allegations against him were false. However, the US appeals court did not review the UK settlement and instead focused on Chishti’s challenge against Spottiswoode’s statements and the arbitration outcome.
The dispute began after Spottiswoode testified before a US congressional committee in 2021 regarding the allegations that led to the 2019 arbitration decision. Her testimony contributed to legislation that ended mandatory arbitration for workplace sexual assault and harassment claims.
Chishti later filed a lawsuit, arguing that her congressional testimony, media interviews and public statements defamed him, breached confidentiality obligations and caused financial and reputational harm.
In its ruling, the appeals court agreed with a lower court’s assessment that the case was an attempt to reverse the outcome of an arbitration that had ruled in Spottiswoode’s favour.
The court held that Spottiswoode’s congressional testimony was protected under legislative privilege because it was given in response to a congressional subpoena related to pending legislation. It also ruled that statements made by Spottiswoode and her lawyer to The Telegraph, along with related social media posts, were protected expressions of opinion or covered by legal privileges under District of Columbia law.
The decision leaves the 2019 arbitration award intact and marks another legal setback for Chishti in the United States. In separate proceedings, a New York federal court has previously ruled that some claims brought by Chishti against TRG entities were released under a 2022 settlement agreement and ordered the transfer of certain assets to satisfy an arbitration award.
