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Street Wire: Telecure wins identifying order for on-line detractors

by Mike Caswell
 
 
 
Telecure Technologies Inc., a suspended Canadian Securities Exchange listing, has won an order in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against a group of anonymous on-line detractors. Telecure claims that the group was behind messages that accused management of using the company as a vehicle to steal money from investors. The group posted material on websites owned by Change.org and CEO.ca Technologies Ltd., the company claims.
The order, handed down on Sept. 6, 2022, directs Change.org and CEO.ca to provide identifying information for users with the pseudonyms Elvis Costello, Justin Priest and xnolimits, with that information to include IP addresses. With those addresses, Telecure will be in a position to trace the material to the Internet connection where it originated. Change.org and CEO.ca both appear to be within the jurisdiction of the court, as they have their offices in Canada.
The material that Telecure complains of, as set out in a notice of claim dated May 18, 2022, stemmed from posts on Change.org and CEO.ca dated May 10, 2022. One of the messages, as quoted in the lawsuit, arose in the context of a petition on Change.org entitled "Safeguard investors from microcap fraudsters." The message referred to individuals in Vancouver who had taken advantage of foreign investors to run pump-and-dump schemes. The message then explained how Harwinder Parmar, one of Telecure's directors, was behind such a fraud ring.
According to the message, Mr. Parmar had incorporated companies that claimed to run mining operations or other businesses. The companies would lure other entities into an agreement for an initial public offering, the message stated. Once the listing was complete, the members of the fraud ring would promote the stocks, selling shares at inflated prices.
Telecure complained that the material was clearly defamatory. It portrayed the company and its management as having participated in a criminal enterprise that used public companies to steal money from investors. The messages also caused the company economic losses, with negotiations of some sort breaking down as a result of the postings, the suit claimed.
The suit seeks an injunction that would restrain the defendants from making future posts. It is also seeking appropriate damages, court costs and interest. Vancouver lawyer Hein Poulus of Poulus Ensom LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of Telecure and several members of its management. In addition to Telecure, the plaintiffs are Harwinder and Amandeep Parmar, as well as Joshua Rosenberg, Eli Dunsenbury and Faizaan Lalani.
When it filed the suit, the company named three defendants that it was aware of. Those were former directors Muhammad Kashif Akrfan, Muhammad Shaukat and Adnan Malik. The company also listed several John Does, with those individuals presumably being the ones it is seeking to identify with the present order.
The three defendants have yet to file a response to the claim. They had been members of the company's board and part of its management until a falling out with the other directors in late 2021 or early 2022. It is not entirely clear what led to that falling out, but the lawsuit did mention that the board had become divided and ineffective, with the members failing to develop "mutual respect" for each other.
Telecure has not traded since July 11, 2022, when the B.C. Securities Commission suspended it for failing to file its financial statements. The stock was last at a thinly traded nine cents.