Of interest to ALL posters. DuSolo wins identifying order for 25 Stockhouse users
2015-03-09 11:50 ET - Street Wire
by Mike Caswell
DuSolo Fertilizers Inc. has won an order in the Supreme Court of British Columbia compelling Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. to identify 25 forum users the company accused of writing defamatory material. DuSolo said the users created posts that falsely linked its management with fraudulent activity, calling the stock a pump-and-dump and referring to a shareholder as a con man. The posts also criticized the company's president, calling him a "wealthy scoundrel."
The company obtained the order after a brief court appearance on Feb. 24, 2015. The order gives Stockhouse seven days to provide any identifying information it has for the authors of the material, with that information to include IP addresses. Once it has those addresses, DuSolo will be in a position to seek the authors' actual names from their Internet service providers.
The messages that the company complains of are detailed in a petition it filed on Feb. 16, 2015, at the Vancouver courthouse. The petition listed a series of messages that began on Dec. 19, 2014, in DuSolo's forum on Stockhouse. Many targeted the company's president, Eran Frielander, accusing him of associating with less-than-honourable individuals. One, by a user named pumpanddump123, read: "Eran Friedlander is in Bed with Ron Bauer and his brother Alon Friedlander-both residing outside of Canada. Fleeing from the SEC and Tax Fraud."
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| DUSOLO |
| Eran Friedlander |
Other posts criticized Eran Friedlander over his divorce from television personality Jody Claman (who was in the show Real Housewives of Vancouver.) A user named King335 wrote: "What wealthy scoundrel sues his wife ... Eran Friedlander." Another user, Grizzlybear593, added to the topic, writing: "You want to invest in Eran Friedlander? He's a rogue! Sued a single mother of 3 for half her money!"
A later post, also by King335, said that the company's largest shareholder, Mr. Bauer, was a pump-and-dump artist and a con man. The post pointed out that Mr. Bauer had been the subject of a civil case from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2009. (The SEC said that Mr. Bauer made $1.5-million (U.S.) in the pump-and-dump of an OTC Bulletin Board company. Mr. Bauer settled the case out of court in 2006, agreeing to pay $840,000 and to serve a five-year penny stock ban. He did not admit to any wrongdoing.)
DuSolo said the posts were false and defamatory. It also said that it had no way of identifying the users without the assistance of Stockhouse. The users that the judge ordered Stockhouse to identify are pumpanddump123, billybob22, BuyerBewareUSA, King335, Grizzlybear593, Aktiolysator, Megan599, aspen86, pippyrightstock, Bfreeman1, financecanada, greatbuy, ABlack22, LeBal72, MikeCr, fraudwatch15, JoFord, Pippylongstockk, Blackmarket1, Investwell44, Investment09, Banker15, Stockwatch14, Corporation1 and Investment15.
Vancouver lawyer Pam Sheppard of Owen Bird Law Corp. obtained the order on behalf of DuSolo. The stock closed at 24 cents Friday, up half a cent.