NEW YORK – Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel has been secretly funding Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker Media for publishing a sex tape, according to reports in Forbes and The New York Times.

Forbes says Thiel, who co-founded PayPal and sits on the Facebook board of directors, has been footing the former wrestler’s legal bills “against a shared enemy.” The Forbes article , and a similar one in the Times, cited unnamed people familiar with the situation.

Efforts to reach Thiel on Tuesday morning were unsuccessful. Gawker said in a statement that it hopes an appellate court will “correct” a Florida jury’s $140 million verdict against the company and “reaffirm the law that protects a free and critical press.”