Reputation Management Company Linked To Bogus Libel Lawsuits Now Hyping Its Anti-Cyberbullying Skills

from the loutish-abuse-of-the-legal-system-notwithstanding dept

Tue, Oct 18th 2016 2:30pm — Tim Cushing

Fake lawsuits featuring fake plaintiffs filed against fake defendants and hustled past judges to secure court orders demanding delisting by search engines: that's the new face of reputation management, apparently.

Paul Alan Levy, along with newly-acquired partner Eugene Volokh, have managed to track down the possible perpetrator behind a couple dozen bogus lawsuits filed in recent months. Richart Ruddie and his company, Profile Defenders, appear to be engaging in some illegal activity in order to provide clients with the services they've promised them.

Ruddie has refused to comment on the lawsuits or answer questions posed by Levy and Volokh. Instead, he has opted to fight speech with more speech [lol] by issuing a very self-serving press release.

Here's what Profile Defenders has to say about itself -- not in response to any questions, but rather to buff some of the tarnish off its dented armor. It's not just about "protecting the rich." [No. Really.] It's about saving clients from cyberbullying. (h/t Paul Alan Levy)

Reputation management companies like Profile Defenders protect the innocent from the action of cyberbullies who prey on people.

[...]

Fortunately, reputation management companies like Profile Defenders have arrived, and in the war between reputation companies vs cyber bullies they give the innocent a chance to tell their story on the Internet. Co-founder of Profile Defenders, Richart Ruddie, is glad that people are given a second chance after being defamed by cyber bullies that act like new age mobsters trying to destroy good people through cyber bullying.

I assume Levy, Volokh, and others who have covered this slowly-unravelling debacle are the "new age monsters" attempting to destroy "good people" --"good people" who apparently have no problem filing bogus lawsuits and forging signatures, all the while charging thousands of dollars to drag down their clients' reputations along with their own.

Then there's this, helpfully pointed out by a commenter (and victim of one of PD's bogus lawsuits) on Levy's post. Ruddie's personal blog contains a post with some enlightening thoughts about journalism.

Writers and journalists typically use their powers for evil and to hurt good people.

And what sort of people are the "good people" hurt by "evil" journalists? Richart Ruddie is, according to Richart Ruddie.

Had one of the nicest compliments this past weekend. A new friend said "Chart do you know why I like you?"

"At the end of the day you're just a genuine person Richart Ruddie"

You're not looking for anything from anybody, you are just here to be happy and have a good time and if you can facilitate others to be happy as well then you do your part to ensure all others around you are happy.

Yep. Genuine as fuck. More from Levy:

[I] expect that Ruddie will prove a slippery character – the home page of his “Profile Defenders” web site provides a New York City street address that appears to be phony (a letter I sent him at that address demanding that he preserve relevant documents came back undeliverable), and both the Linked In and Google profiles of Profile Defenders show a Washington, D.C. address that does not exist. Moreover, Florida’s records reveal that Ruddie maintains a stable of many different LLC’s. It may take the investigative resources of a federal or state grand jury or of the Federal Trade Commission to track him and his assets down, and bring him to justice.

Volokh and Levy have uncovered plenty of damning evidence strongly suggesting Ruddie's company is now in the business of filing bogus lawsuits simply because (a) there's very little chance any judge will examine these cases closely (and when a judge does, the suit is refiled in another court) and (b) it's one of the only methods proven to result in delistings of negative reviews hosted by non-parties to the lawsuits. As Levy notes, it may be almost impossible to blow this wide open, much less get Ruddie to answer any questions about these lawsuits on the record. But the reputational damage his company is now causing indirectly to its clients may result in lawsuits Ruddie can't ignore, filed by aggrieved customers who paid thousands of dollars just to see themselves swept into Profile Defender's destructive vortex.

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Filed Under: eugene volokh, fake lawsuits, paul levy, reputation management, richart ruddie, takedowns
Companies: profile defenders

13 Comments

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Retsibsi (profile), 18 Oct 2016 @ 3:12pm

I wouldn't be so sure there won't be repercussions against the reputation management companies. Courts take an extremely dim view of "abuse of process". If a judge is prepared to launch an investigation into such a case then we may see a number of attorneys fleeing for cover trying to exculpate themselves from any such wrongdoing, and that may involve them co-operating with the courts to show they were innocent and had been misled by their "clients".
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- procopius (profile), 21 Oct 2016 @ 2:36am
  
  Re:
  You probably weren't aware of the huge assault on home owners in 2009-10. Have you ever heard of Florida's "Rocket Docket?" Have you ever heard of DocX? In Florida (and Arizona and several other states) approval of a court is required before a mortgage holder can repossess real estate. During the subprime boom millions of original documents were simply shredded after the transfer of the mortgages were recorded in a private data base called MERS, rather than at the County Clerk's office as required by law. When the banks went to foreclose, they hired the "document reconstruction" firm, DocX, to "recreate" the missing documents. They did this by simply forging the documents. If the debtors pointed out that the documents the banks presented were notarized by people who were dead on the date of their signature, the judges would tell the banks to take back the documents and bring the correct ones. If the debtors pointed out that the documents were signed by people who worked at a different company than the one named, the judge usually told the bank to take back their document and bring the correct one at the next session. It it too lengthy a story to tell in all its horror here. Literally millions of forged documents were presented to the courts and the courts accepted them because otherwise the banks could not have foreclosed. That would be unacceptable to the courts.
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SlapBone (profile), 18 Oct 2016 @ 3:40pm

A new friend said Shart do you know why I like you?
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2016 @ 3:50pm
  
  Re:
  Something stinks around here...
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DoB, 18 Oct 2016 @ 3:41pm

'Cyberbulling' is like 'child pornography' and 'terrorist'
He is playing the 'cyber bully' accusation.

It's one of those phrases that is supposed to make you turn off rational thought and the presumption of innocence.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2016 @ 4:06pm

I wonder if the Prenda clowns have found a new venue to persue money.
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Wyrm (profile), 18 Oct 2016 @ 5:31pm

Fake lawsuits featuring fake plaintiffs filed against fake defendants and hustled past judges to secure court orders demanding delisting by search engines: that's the new face of reputation management, apparently. Actually, it seems the lawsuits are real. Bogus, but not fake. That's what gives them the power to compel real ISPs over real comments after all.
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- Wyrm (profile), 18 Oct 2016 @ 5:32pm
  
  Re:
  (made a mistake with the blockquote it seems)
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2016 @ 6:14pm

If only we could all have rep mgt like Hillary
Hillary has the most awesome, most expensive reputation management firm of all times. Its called the liberal media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aynfXGaV-EQ
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- Anonymous Coward, 18 Oct 2016 @ 7:11pm
  
  Re: If only we could all have rep mgt like Hillary
  That's great and all, but the adults are trying to have a conversation over here. Do please try to keep your drooling idiocy to a minimum.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Oct 2016 @ 4:03am
    
    Re: Re: If only we could all have rep mgt like Hillary
    Ah, can't attack the message so attack the messenger. Too bad the adults recognize this ploy easily.
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    - I.T. Guy, 19 Oct 2016 @ 6:28am
      
      Re: Re: Re: If only we could all have rep mgt like Hillary
      Potato.
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Anonymous, 18 Oct 2016 @ 6:56pm

This comment has been deleted due to a Court Order involving the lawsuit of Dick Steel v Anal Onlooker
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