To KozmoT - Foremost Clean Energy Ltd.Mr. KozmoT,
I am are writing to you directly after your posts (the “Posts”) have come to my attention regarding Foremost Clean Energy Ltd., (“the Company or Foremost” ) on www.stockhouse.com (“Stockhouse”) on its forum called “The Bullboard Stock Discussion Forum”. Upon review it appears that you have launched a deliberate and intentional campaign to defame Foremost and its directors’ and management (the “Corporation”) by falsely and repeatedly claims that it engages in conduct that is illegal, unethical, and contrary to Canadian and United States securities regulations.
The elements of the tort are well established. A defamation action is required to prove three things to obtain judgment in an award of damages:
- Defamatory Nature: The statements made must be harmful, tending to lower the Corporation's reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person.
- Reference to the Corporation: The statements in question must clearly refer to the Corporation itself, not leaving room for ambiguity regarding their intended target.
- Publication: The statements must have been communicated to at least one person other than the plaintiff, establishing the public dissemination of the alleged defamatory content.
The case law surrounding defamation is extensive.
You must not confuse freedom of speech with freedom of defamation. An “anonymous blogger” who posts spiteful and defamatory comments in an attempt to tarnish a company’s reputation cannot hide behind the electronic curtain provided by the Internet and escape legal consequences. There are numerous circumstances of companies achieving judgements against Stockhouse Posters by initially serving the claims via email on pseudonym or through their anonymous email addresses.
Kozmo T’s Accusations Against Foremost Foremost Clean Energy has faced a series of damaging allegations propagated through your posts on the Stockhouse discussion forum. Since November 2020, various posts have accused the Corporation of engaging in illegal and unethical business practices, including:
- Wash Trading and Pump-and-Dump Schemes: Assertions have been made that the Corporation participates in wash trading—a deceptive practice where an entity trades its own stock to create artificial market activity.
- Mismanagement of Funds: Accusations have been directed towards the Corporation's management, claiming that insiders are profiting exorbitantly from management and consulting fees at the expense of shareholders.
- Selective Disclosure: The Corporation has been accused of not providing full disclosure of drilling and exploration results, implying that it is hiding unfavorable outcomes from investors, contrary to “43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects”, policy 2.3(2) “Restricted Disclosure Section”
You have made statements about the Corporation like “
It is obviously comically Wash Trading to make it look it isn’t another garbage CSE penny stock with no interest. Never mind the Nasdaq scheme”. Made assertions that
“a director and manager of the Corporation registered their common stock in their business corporation’s name in a deliberate attempt to mislead investor”; That the Corporation
“must be in cash flow problems due to “insiders filling their pockets with Management fees, Director fees and ‘Consulting’ fees” as well as stated “
this news release would be funny if the Corporation wasn’t leeching money out of investors”. And most recently, you wrote “
This isn’t an exploration company…it’s a mini-wealth generator for a small team of promoters and pumpers. Anybody look at the Related party transaction section of the financials lately?”
KozmoT, you cannot publish anonymous accusations of illegal conduct, mismanagement of funds, or purposeful misinformation against management of a reporting issuer on any stock forum without taking any care to ascertain the truth of your accusations and without any care about the damage that your words might cause in the market place. It can be safely assumed that your words would be starkly different under your real name.
Your reckless and unfounded statements have real ramifications, regardless of posting under the false security of anonymity. Publicly broadcast information/opinions should be factual and supported by credible evidence. Courts will swiftly take actions against anonymous posters of defamatory comments and will carefully scrutinize the conduct of the persons.
In my opinion, based on my review on Foremost Clean Energy, my knowledge of the company and their public, I would advise them to take immediate actions to vigorously defend itself and its reputation with stakeholders and investors, rather than let misrepresentations and harmful inaccuracies continue to manifest.
Furthermore, my advice to the Corporation: Truth is always the biggest Defense.
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Don’t Let Anything Stop You.