Privacy, Business and Law

On October 5, a proposed amended complaint was filed in a defamation lawsuit brought in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by Sovereign Partners Limited Partnership, Dominion Capital Fund Ltd. and Stephen M. Hicks against Restaurant Teams International, Inc., ConSyGen, Inc., Stanley Swanson, Curtis Swanson and Thomas Dreaper. The suit alleged that the defendant companies made false and defamatory statements accusing plaintiffs of unlawful short selling “in a malicious effort to blame plaintiffs for the results of their own business and management failures.” As stated in a press release, “The [proposed] amended complaint . . . expands on plaintiffs’ original claims against Restaurant Teams, its officers Stanley and Curtis Swanson, ConSysGen, and its former CEO Thomas Dreaper. Since the original complaint was filed, plaintiffs discovered that Dreaper was responsible for Internet postings under the screen name “TradeIQ. Therefore, the amended complaint expressly seeks damages from Dreaper for those postings, as well as for his public statements as CEO of ConSyGen. The [proposed] amended complaint also adds charges against several new defendants, including: Restaurant Teams’ former financial advisor Harry N. McMillan; ConSysGen shareholder Mark Weiss; and two Internet users who have frequently posted messages [allegedly] defamatory of the plaintiffs and who, plaintiffs [allegedly] discovered, were provided with Restaurant Teams stock purportedly pursuant to its Employee Stock Option Plan.” See Business Wire – Company Press Release: Investors Amend Defamation Complaint Filed Against ConSyGen and Restaurants – Mark Weiss, Tom Dreaper, Harry McMillan, Lee Walsh and Other Internet Posters Named as Additional Parties in Amended Complaint, Bus. Wire, Oct. 5, 1999 (10:23 a.m. Eastern Time)