August 24,2018;
An Indo-Canadian Businessman, who is originally from Bhuj, Gujarat, has been awarded Rs 8.4 crore approximately in damages after he was defamed in a series of Fake News articles instigated by a Prominent American blockchain investor.
It is one of the biggest compensations of its kind in Canada.
Vancouver-based Altaf Nazerali had sued Patrick Byrne, CEO of online retailer Overstock.com, for a campaign of lies aimed to tarnish reputation of NRI businessman.
Last week, Supreme Court of Canada rejected Patrick Byrne’s Appeal against $1.2 million (Rs 8.9 Crore approx) granted to NRI businessman by Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2016.
Award of compensation to Nazerali comes after a seven-year legal battle to clear his name after a series of articles published in 2011, on an American website DeepCapture.com tried to depict NRI businessman as a drug trafficker, arms dealer and gangster and a financial supporter of al-Qaida.
Articles tried to show that he had links to Russian and Italian mafias.
Articles were written by Mark Mitchell and published on website owned and published by Byrne which reports on the Criminal Financial Conspiracies.
In its 2016 judgment in favour of NRI Business, Justice Kenneth Affleck of Vancouver-based British Columbia Supreme Court stated that,“Mitchell, Byrne and Deep Capture LLC engaged in a calculated and ruthless campaign to inflict as much damage on Nazerali’s reputation as they could achieve".
Supreme Court further added that,“It is clear on the evidence that their intention was to conduct a vendetta in which the truth about Nazerali himself was of no consequence.”
Source HT
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