I came across the following news release which I thought might be of interest to you as it is certainly of interest to me and possibly a warning to those who with seeming impunity feel free stating falsehoods while thinking they are safe hiding behind an anonymous screen name.
April 07, 2011 11:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Seafarer Awarded $5 Million Defamation Verdict
TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Seafarer Exploration Corp. (OTCBB: SFRX) announced a Hillsborough County Jury rendered a verdict on April 5th 2011 at 4:45 pm in favor of Seafarer for $5,080,000.00 in compensatory damages. After two days of evidence had been presented in court, a jury determined that hundreds of on line posts written by Sean Murphy under the screen name of "Floridatreasurecapt" were false and caused a decrease in market price. Seafarer believes collecting any or all of the damages will be difficult to do, but will continue to try to collect until paid in full.
"We and our client are weighing the approach to take toward punitive damages in this case to dissuade others from doing this."
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One of the Board Directors for Seafarer, Pelle Ojasu, stated, "We are pleased with the verdict rendered by the jury and I am very happy our CEO maintained his vigilance to prosecute those who would maliciously hurt the Company and its' personnel through relentless false postings over the last year. Now that the truth has finally come out, we can continue our focus on building shareholder value and executing our business plan." Lead trial attorney, Craig A. Huffman stated, "Mr. Murphy is going to be an example of what should happen to people who sit behind screen names and negatively, falsely, impinge the lives of people and of good companies. We are not done with him yet. This will set a precedent for small market companies to fight back." Co-counsel, David Chalela, stated, "We and our client are weighing the approach to take toward punitive damages in this case to dissuade others from doing this."
Disclaimer:
The press release may include certain statements that are not descriptions of historical facts, but are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements may include the description of our plans and objectives for future operations, assumptions underlying such plans and objectives, and other forward-looking terminology such as "may", "expects", "believes", "anticipates", "intends", "projects" or similar terms, variations of such terms or the negative of such terms. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein. Such information is based upon various assumptions made by, and expectations of, our management that were reasonable when made but may prove to be incorrect. All of such assumptions are inherently subject to significant economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies beyond our control and upon assumptions with respect to the future business decisions which are subject to change. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that actual results will meet expectations and actual results may vary (perhaps materially) from certain of the results anticipated herein.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110407006286/en/Seafarer-Awarded-5-Million-Defamation-Verdict
