Private eye ‘hired for intimidation’
A businessman allegedly hired a private investigator to ‘‘harass’’ and ‘‘intimidate’’ a former employee, whom he accused of being a Nazi sympathiser, to pressure her into dropping legal action against him.
On the first day of the Employment Court case in Nelson, Mia Nelson gave evidence against her former boss Tony Katavich, the owner of United States-registered publishing company Haldeman LLC.
The company runs websites that claim to help people get jobs in the Australian mining and oil industries; adopt a child; or start a radio station. Haldeman’s head office is in a sprawling mansion in Wakefield, near Nelson, which features a bronze statue of former United States president Richard Nixon.
Nelson’s lawyer Luke Acland said Katavich’s business operated in a ‘‘web of deceit’’ by selling freely available information to unsuspecting customers for hundreds of dollars.
‘‘Effectively
it’s
a
sham arrangement and Mr Katavich is the guiding hand behind everything.’’
The case is related to an Employment Relations Authority (ERA) decision in 2013 in which Katavich was ordered to pay Nelson $35,000 for unfair dismissal, outstanding wages and lost wages arising from her dismissal.
Katavich appealed the decision. He says Nelson is a Nazi sympathiser and caused reputational damage to his company, and falsified her resume. Nelson denies the allegations.
Nelson also appealed an aspect of the ERA ruling that stated her employer was Haldeman LLC. She says she was employed by Katavich and wants him to be held personally liable.
Nelson was fired by Katavich in June, 2012, and accused of harbouring Nazi views after she created the email account ‘‘hitlerhatesbabies@gmail.com’’ and used the password ‘‘ilovehitler’’ for work purposes.
This was after Katavich stripped her office of everything but a desk, chair, telephone and laptop, positioned her desk in the ‘‘dunce corner’’ and demoted her from a management-type position.
Nelson said that was because she attended a former colleague’s barbecue after work and didn’t tell Katavich about it.
‘‘I felt absolutely humiliated. I’d only just moved to Nelson and now my office was a cell.’’
Nelson, who emigrated from the United States in 2010, said Katavich knew about the ‘‘hitlerhatesbabies’’ email address well before her dismissal.
She said part of her job was to register a ‘‘huge number’’ of fake email addresses which were used to manipulate Google’s ranking system anonymously. It was a scheme, created by Katavich, to improve his websites’ performance on Google, she said.
The email addresses were also used to write ‘‘nonsense’’ blog posts designed to outrank websites that were critical of Katavich and his company, Nelson said.
She filed unjustified dismissal and personal grievance proceedings against Katavich in June, 2012.
Nelson moved to Invercargill and got a job with the Invercargill City Council.
In August
2012,
she
said Katavich sent a ‘‘derogatory’’ email to the council accusing her of being a Nazi sympathiser.
Later that month, Katavich made a claim in the Disputes Tribunal over a $10,000 bonus he had paid her.
He also launched a defamation case against her in the High Court, and sued her and her former partner Josh Dean for $2 million in damages over the Nazi allegations.
Katavich also allegedly wrote to the Ministry of Justice attempting to get Nelson’s legal aid withdrawn.
Nelson said Katavich also hired private investigator David McKean to ‘‘dig up some dirt’’ on her.
She said McKean told her he had been sent to Invercargill by Katavich and threatened further legal action if she didn’t drop her case.
‘‘I felt violated, scared intimidated,’’ Nelson said.
Katavich, representing himself, began his cross-examination of Nelson yesterday, focusing on the alleged falsifying of her resume. He claims she lied about having photography experience.
The trial continues.
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