**OT but disgusting nonetheless**
"New York, July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. filed a $1 million libel suit against a New Jersey man and 10 others who posted critical messages about one of the firm's analysts on a Yahoo Inc. message board.
The suit filed today alleges that Chuan Chang, a retired scientist, and ten unidentified computer users libeled the global investment bank and an analyst by posting disparaging messages.
The complaint doesn't name the analyst or provide the substance of the posts on Yahoo's ELN Finance Message Board. Chang and the others -- known only by screen names such as ``LA_Broker'' and ``HealthCareChick -- posted the messages from March until early July, the suit says.
The messages ``included false statements defamatory of CSFB and one of its research analysts,'' the suit says. The messages are ``potentially injurious to the business of CSFB,'' it said.
Reached at home this evening, Chang, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, said he was stunned by the suit. He identified the stock as Elan Corp. Plc, a specialty pharmaceutical firm whose American depositary receipts have risen from 39 11/16 on March 9, the day of the first post, to 52 today.
Chang said the analyst soured on the stock even as it continued to climb.
``It's done very well, and the guy said it's no good,'' Chang said. ``That's why we were ridiculing him and saying this guy is dead wrong.''
Chang said he hadn't received the complaint.
``An analyst trying to shut message boards down would be a terrible thing,'' he said. ``It would prevent people from communicating freely on the Internet.''
Elan, based in Dublin, Ireland, offers a vaccine-based treatment for Alzheimer's disease. The company hopes the drug can enter large-scale clinical trials needed to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within two years.
Credit Suisse First Boston is a unit of Credit Suisse Group.
Jul/11/2000 20:46 ET |
