Jeff Bezos steps out with Lauren Sánchez amid ongoing FTC legal battle

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez were all smiles as they headed out to dinner at The Lobster Club in New York City while holding hands.

The visit to NYC's famous lobster spot Thursday night marked the end of a busy day for the couple, who was joined by friends and the businessman's father, Miguel Bezos, for the evening, People reported.

The 60-year-old tech billionaire joined the 54-year-old Emmy-winning journalist for dinner after the couple was honored with Conservation International's Global Visionary Award.

The engaged couple was awarded due to their work with the Bezos Earth Fund, which was developed by a $10 billion commitment from Bezos in 2020 to help "address climate and nature within the current decade."

Additionally, in a court filing on the same day, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged that Amazon executives, including Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy, discussed "sensitive business matters" via text messages, Entrepreneur reported.

The allegations said that those text messages that could have been used as evidence in the FTC's ongoing antitrust case against Amazon have now been deleted.

According to the filing, they used the encrypted Signal messaging app from April 2019 to May 2022 and continued to delete messages through the app's disappearing message feature despite the FTC's ongoing investigation of Amazon.

The FTC asked for more information about how Amazon's leadership told employees to communicate on Signal, including when to use it and if there were specific instructions about deleting messages.

Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle told Bloomberg that the allegations were "baseless" and that the company disclosed its Signal use to the FTC "years ago."