A New Zealand-based stock picker will have to pay at least $275,000 after defaming a prominent Australian mining investor via social media, a court has ruled.
Alan Francis Davison, the man behind the Stock Swami Twitter account, defamed Tolga Kumova through a number of social media posts alleging he was involved in a syndicate engaged in “pump and dump” schemes to inflate the value of stocks they owned, Justice Michael Lee told the Federal Court on Monday.
Mr Davison’s various defences fell away in a manner which “should have been obvious from the start”, the judge said.
The stocks did not appear susceptible to a “pump and dump” scheme and there was no evidence any “dump” took place outside normal trading activity or that Mr Kumova was involved in a criminal syndicate conducting such a scheme, Justice Lee said.
He accepted Mr Kumova’s claim his social media posts about specific stocks he had invested in growing in value were prideful boasts, not designed to encourage others to invest.
“It was at least in large part an exercise in swaggering braggadocio,” Justice Lee said.
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Mr Davison had pursued an ongoing campaign against Mr Kumova through his own Twitter account and complaints to regulators, and an apology he offered the court was not accepted as genuine by the judge.
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Justice Lee also criticised the conduct of Mr Davison’s legal team, withholding documents and commenting publicly on the ongoing case, when deciding to award aggravated damages.
Mr Kumova has been awarded $275,000 in damages with a future hearing to determine payment of legal costs and restrictions on material being republished.
