Cristiano must be bored ...
Verde sues over on-line accusations
Verde Potash PLC (C:NPK)
Shares Issued 37,617,430
Last Close 2/5/2016 $0.14
Tuesday February 09 2016 - Street Wire
by Mike Caswell
Verde Potash PLC has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against a pair of Stockhouse users who called the company a "huge fraud" and accused its chief executive officer of misconduct. The messages falsely implied that the company was a scam designed to personally enrich its CEO, among other things, Verde says. It is seeking an order restraining the defendants as well as appropriate damages.
The allegations are contained a notice of claim that Verde filed at the Vancouver courthouse on Feb. 4, 2016. The suit lists the defendants as a pair of unknown Stockhouse users who posted under the aliases "Brazilian" and "brazilinvestor1." The company complains about a series of messages that appeared over three days in February, 2014.
Although the company has no names for the users, from the messages they appear to be locals from the area where the company is working in Brazil. The first of the messages, dated Feb. 4, 2014, states: "I live in Sao Gotardo, the city where the Cerrado Verde Project is located ... No one here trusts this company. People says that the KCI project were just a way Cristiano Veloso [Verde's CEO] found to gain bonus from the company." The post goes on to say that farmers in the area will not allow the company to work on their lands and the company's employees have been quitting, citing concerns with Mr. Veloso's unethical manner. "You should stop listening to his distorted words and start hearing what people says. The majority here says it is a huge fraud," the post read.
Another post, appearing the following day, criticized Mr. Veloso as well. It stated: "About this CEO, there are a lot of mistakes and misconduct. There is no transparency. Know I ask: how can a CEO earn more than 1.5 million dollar in a year that he did nothing for the company?"
As Verde sees it, the messages were entirely defamatory. They meant that the company's ventures were fraudulent, the company's projects in Brazil were universally opposed by the locals and that employees were quitting because of unethical conduct on the part of the CEO. Readers could also imply that the company was a scam designed to enrich its CEO, the suit states.
The company is seeking an injunction barring further libellous statements. It is also asking for appropriate damages and court costs.
The fact that the company has now filed the lawsuit without naming the defendants means it could be encountering some difficulty in obtaining their identities. Verde previously went to court to obtain an order directing Stockhouse to release any identifying information about the posters. Despite obtaining that order nearly a year ago, Verde has not yet procured sufficient information that would allow it to use the real names of the writers. The timing of the lawsuit could also be a product of court deadlines. Generally defamation lawsuits must be commenced no later than two years after the actual libel; Verde's lawsuit comes on the two-year anniversary of the first post. By filing the lawsuit now, the company can reserve its right to sue and apply at a later date to add the defendants' actual names.
Vancouver lawyer Daniel Reid of Harper Grey LLP filed the suit on behalf of Verde. The stock closed at 14 cents Monday, unchanged.
© 2016 Canjex Publishing Ltd. |
