Multivision's Nazerali pans "fast and loose" journalism
2015-04-21 19:59 ET - Street Wire
by Stockwatch Business Reporter
Aly Nazerali, the plaintiff in a libel trial against the Deep Capture website, continued his testimony on Tuesday morning, answering defence lawyer Roger McConchie's questions about media articles from 1999 to 2003. Mr. Nazerali was also cross-examined about his communications with Mark Mitchell, the author of the allegedly defamatory statements on Deep Capture.
The testimony is part of a lawsuit that Mr. Nazerali is pursuing against Deep Capture, Patrick Byrne, Mr. Mitchell and others over allegedly libellous on-line postings from 2011. Mr. Nazerali complains that the postings falsely claimed that he had links to terrorists, Mafia members and other unsavoury types, and that he ran a pump-and-dump of Imagis Technologies, a facial-recognition promotion from the early 2000s.
On Tuesday morning, Mr. McConchie picked up where he left off on Monday afternoon, taking Mr. Nazerali through media articles that mainly revolved around Imagis.
One was published by the National Post's Robert Thompson on Dec. 20, 2002, and was headlined, "Imagis fights back on claims of terrorist links," read Mr. McConchie. Another was published by Stockwatch's Lee Webb on Sept. 20, 2002. Among other things, the Stockwatch article discussed Thomson Kernaghan, a brokerage firm that "disintegrated amidst a massive financial scandal," quoted Mr. McConchie. The firm's former chairman, Mark Valentine, was discussed in detail in yet another article produced for the court, Jacquie McNish's "The rise and fall of broker Mark Valentine," published in The Globe and Mail on July 8, 2002.
In response to Mr. McConchie's questions about those articles, Mr. Nazerali acknowledged that he had met Mr. Valentine and that Imagis had a "fiscal agency agreement" with Thomson Kernaghan in late 2001. He could not recall if the agreement continued beyond November, 2001.
Other articles, published in 2002 and 2003, focused on Imagis's finances. In response to questions, Mr. Nazerali testified that Imagis never turned a profit during his time there and was having, to use Mr. McConchie's term, "serious money problems" in the spring of 2003.
When asked about offshore funds that invested in Imagis, Mr. Nazerali could name a few, such as Joe Eberhard's JTE Finanz. Mr. McConchie was particularly interested in any such offshore fund's transactions between March and July, 2002, when Imagis's shares were reacting positively to a purported go-private proposal from the Pembridge Group (discussed at length in previous testimony). Mr. Nazerali said he did not know about the transactions because the investments had not reached a level that would require insider reporting.
The talk turned back to the media. One article of much discussion was published by Brent Mudry on June 21, 1999. (Mr. McConchie did not mention the location, but the article is available on the Stockwatch website.)
The article is of interest because it was e-mailed to Mr. Nazerali by Mr. Mitchell (the author of the Deep Capture postings) in September, 2011, explained Mr. McConchie. Mr. Mitchell apparently sent the e-mail to provide a source for his postings on Mr. Nazerali and the Belzberg family.
Mr. Mudry's article, as read by Mr. McConchie, began, "Controversial Vancouver stock promoter Rene Hamouth led Corsaire Inc. into a variety of aborted deals ..." and went on to list the "cast of characters," which "reads like a 'Who's Who' of Howe Street graduates." Some of these characters were Mr. Hamouth, Nelson Skalbania, Sam Belzberg, Jean Claude Hauchecorne, Mr. Eberhard and Shafiq Nazerali-Walji (Mr. Nazerali's brother), all of whom Mr. Nazerali confirmed he had met. Mr. Mudry further wrote that Mr. Nazerali-Walji and Corsaire were "mired in litigation" over a deal involving a zeolite company, read Mr. McConchie.
Mr. Nazerali's testimony suggested that he did not appreciate the article. He said he paid little attention to it, never even discussing its contents with his brother, because the author was Mr. Mudry, who in Mr. Nazerali's opinion merely "purports to be" a journalist and plays "particularly fast and loose" with his writing.
Mr. Mudry referred several times to a "Mr. Nazerali" in his story, pointed out Mr. McConchie, who assumed that the man in question was actually Mr. Nazerali-Walji. In response, Mr. Nazerali testified that Mr. Mitchell e-mailed him and admitted (in Mr. Nazerali's words) "that I was not the Nazerali that he thought."
Mistaken identity was not the only problem with the Deep Capture postings, said Mr. Nazerali. He testified that the postings also featured him going to meetings in places he had never been with people he had never met. He complained about this to Mr. Mitchell, who, in a response e-mail read by Mr. McConchie, said he had made it clear in the postings that he was using "composites of many meetings with the true locations disguised" to protect sources. Mr. McConchie asked whether Mr. Nazerali had verified that Mr. Mitchell made this disclaimer in the postings. Mr. Nazerali responded, "I didn't take that trouble because I considered the statement to be preposterous."
Elsewhere in the e-mail, read Mr. McConchie, Mr. Mitchell said he was open to changing his postings to reflect new information. Mr. McConchie asked whether Mr. Nazerali had ever noticed any changes to the postings since learning about them in 2011. Mr. Nazerali said he had, several times. (Evidently none of the changes were to his satisfaction.)
Mr. Nazerali is represented in the trial by Vancouver lawyer Dan Burnett. |
