Businessman wins $1.2m in Internet libel case

Judge says Altaf Nazerali was victim of online ‘vendetta’

Vancouver entrepreneur Altaf Nazerali is celebrating a $1.2-million judgment after a five-year battle against a “ruthless campaign” to destroy his reputation.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Affleck on Friday awarded Nazerali $400,000 in general damages, $500,000 in aggravated damages, $250,000 in punitive damages and $55,000 in special damages for a series of defamatory articles.

The defendants — Patrick Byrne, CEO of online retailer Overstock.com and of Deep Capture LLC, and article author Mark Mitchell — were also permanently banned from publishing any of the scurrilous material on the Internet or elsewhere.

They falsely portrayed Nazerali as a gangster, arms dealer, drug trafficker, financier of alQaida and member of the Russian and Italian Mafias.

“Mitchell, Byrne and Deep Capture LLC engaged in a calculated and ruthless campaign to inflict as much damage on Mr. Nazerali’s reputation as they could achieve,” Affleck concluded in his 102page ruling.

“It is clear on the evidence that their intention was to conduct a vendetta in which the truth about Mr. Nazerali himself was of no consequence.”

Affleck slammed Mitchell and Byrne for demonstrating “an indecent and pitiless desire to wound.”

He said the injunction was necessary because the U.S.based defendants acted with malice and “will resist enforcement of a monetary judgment of this court against them in that country.”

Nazerali said in an interview he didn’t care if he got any of the money from the lawsuit, which was triggered by material published in 2011 on DeepCapture.com, a website devoted to criminal financial conspiracies.

“I tried to discuss it with them,” Nazerali said. “I pointed out numerous times that what they had written was incorrect and not factual. I gave them the opportunity to correct their story and … instead of toning it down, they compounded it after I filed suit against them.”

Nazerali said he was “horrified” when he discovered the outlandish accusations on the website and called the stories “pure fiction.”

He said the experience was devastating, the defamation “the cruellest form of torture and punishment one can possibly imagine.”

His children have been affected, Nazerali testified, his business has been savaged, and his health so “disturbed” he requires medication to sleep.

“It’s the court of public opinion which is the most important,” Nazerali said. “You damage someone’s reputation through the Internet, it doesn’t matter whether you are in Timbuktu or Ohio or Chicago.”