Wealthy Australian lister sues an anonymous user of a New Zealand-based Twitter account

An anonymous stock market gossip account followed by some of Australia’s most prominent financial and business figures is being sued for defamation.

Melbourne-based mining businessman Tolga Kumova has taken legal action against the owner of the New Zealand-based Twitter account @stockswami, named in court documents as Alan Francis Davison of Tauranga, over an ongoing alleged smear campaign .

The former stockbroker turned mineral speculator, who has a reported net worth of $ 95 million, seeks aggravated damages against Davison for six series of tweets that he claims are defamatory.

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Over the past year, @stockswami falsely accused AFR Young Rich Lister of insider trading, participation in pump and dump schemes, unreliable business and stock market deception, according to Kumova’s lawsuit statement filed in Federal Court where the tweets were established.

The filing alleges that several of his followers commented on, retweeted or reacted to Davison’s tweets, creating a “vine effect.”

In another tweet on April 24 this year, he wrote that Kumova “certainly knows when to buy and sell stocks with which it is closely related.”

In a series of tweets in June, he falsely accused Kumova of being part of a pump and dump “union.”

In the claim statement, Kumova lists prominent journalists who follow the @stockswami account, including The Australian Financial Review, ABC, The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald, though he does not single out them for retweeting the posts.

“On the occasion of Davison’s publication of the matters denounced, Kumova has been subjected to hatred, ridicule and contempt and his reputation, including his professional reputation as a merchant and mining executive, has suffered and will continue to suffer. . loss and damage “, says the claim.

Kumova is seeking aggravated damages against Davison due to the “ongoing” nature of the campaign, his “failure to inform Kumova of the allegations he intended to publish before publishing” and his “failure to publish an apology and retraction a once informed of the facts errors “of the lawyers of Mr. Kumova.

Davison has previously spoken on his Twitter account about how he got rich off an online business that drives traffic to adult websites.

“I always feel blessed and grateful for my luck,” he tweeted in May. “It allowed me to raise my children while at home. It also allows me to sit here and interrupt the pump groups and professional ASX operators.”

He also claims to have earned NZ $ 1 million trading stocks on the ASX.

“Cyberbullying and online bullying cause great harm to many people,” Kumova said in a statement Sunday.

“It is never right, but it is particularly harmful when thrown anonymously from behind a keyboard. I have taken legal action in Federal Court to defend myself against an online campaign by an anonymous social media troll.”

Kumova said that many people “were not in a position to take an international legal case.”

“I am, and I have decided to do it because it is the right thing to do,” he said. “Enough is enough.”

Davison tweeted on Sunday: “In recent days I received a statement of claims that I made allegations that Tolga Kumova had been involved in internal operations. Let me be clear. That was not and has not been my intention, inference or thought. I apologize to Tolga for any damage caused. “

He has not yet presented a defense.

The matter will be heard in Federal Court of New South Wales by Judge Geoffrey Flick and is listed for mention on September 30.

– News.com.au