Paul Levy Discovers Head Of Reputation Management Company Signed Off On Forged/Fraudulent Court Docs
from the how-the-terrible-have-fallen...-lower...-I-guess... dept
As a result of a federal judge in Rhode Island taking a second look at an order he hastily granted earlier, Paul Alan Levy of Public Citizen has been able to confirm Richart Ruddie -- the head of an extremely-sketchy reputation management company -- signed off on the forged and fraudulent documents delivered to the court. The documents -- a bogus lawsuit featuring the forged signatures of both the plaintiff and the defendant -- are apparently just part of Profile Defenders' reputation management work.
Nice work if you can get [away with] it. File a bogus lawsuit. "Locate" a bogus defendant. Produce a signed admission of guilt and ask the judge to order search engines to delist the offending content. Cash checks. Repeat until caught.
Richart Ruddie has been caught.
While I was at the courthouse in Providence, I had the chance to talk to the clerk’s office and learned the identity of the process service that brought the forged litigation papers to court. The process server, in turn, when informed that he had filed forged papers, had no compunction about identifying the company which in turn had provided those papers and the company on whose account the check to pay the filing fee had been written. The check was from RIR1984 LLC, the very company with which Rescue One Financial had contracted for services to get Steve Rhode’s critical web pages removed from search engine indexes. The individual signer for RIR1984 on the contract is Richart Ruddie, who, as Eugene Volokh and I reported last month, is apparently responsible for dozens of fake lawsuits around the country. And the go-between was “Annuity Sold,” a company with which Richart Ruddie himself has self-identified.
Levy has now moved to vacate the court order and dismiss the complaint. He's also pursuing legal fees, but something about Ruddie's character (along with his cast of nonexistent libel lawsuit defendants) suggests this attempt may be fruitless. In any event, Ruddie will likely stop filing bogus lawsuits. But he may also find himself facing a federal investigation for his past misdeeds. From the hearing transcript [PDF]:
THE COURT: [...] I am going to have a transcript of this proceeding prepared, and I'm going to order the Clerk to send a copy of the file, all of your filings, as well as the transcript of this proceeding this afternoon to the United States Attorney's office for them to review because it does appear to me, as I said earlier, just at first blush, that there's potentially multiple crimes that have been committed, both fraud and potentially forgery. And various kinds of fraud, I think, are in play here, and so I think it is something that law enforcement should become aware of and investigate.
I'm embarrassed that this order, this consent order, was signed, but it shows you just how, you know, in a busy court, how something like this can happen. But I'm, frankly, if everything that's in here is true, which it appears to be, I'm pretty outraged about it.
That noise you hear in the background is popcorn producers stepping up production. There may be some very interesting developments in the near future. Not only that, but it appears Richart Ruddie isn't the only one engaging in this sort of fraudulent behavior. Pissed Consumer is also asking courts to take a closer look at some suspicious libel lawsuits that have resulted in delisting of its content -- lawsuits that follow the same M.O. as the ones spotted by Levy.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: defamation, fake lawsuits, fraud, paul levy, reputation management, rhode island, richart ruddie
Companies: profile defenders
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
But it's not just the Profile Defenders scam!
I love the last sentence . . .
So we may learn of more pissed off judges and other companies such as Profile Defenders.
Righthaven. Prenda. Profile Defenders. Popcorn is starting to get old. Pretzles in a bag are gratification without waiting for it to pop.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
New Prenda
[ link to this | view in thread ]
So Profile Defenders is a Prenda Pretenda?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
There is more than a clear pattern of criminal intent here to justify charging him IMHO. Obviously Ruddie took a lot of time to examine the various state statues and their deadlines for filing these types of lawsuits specifically to abuse them.
The court itself shares some blame in that they took everything at face value and rubber stamped it without doing any real due diligence of the the facts in the com,plaint or the parties named in the lawsuit and how this settlement was agreed to.
I suspect Ruddie knowing the courts are overburden with crap that Ruddie knew that there really wouldnt be an real examination of the fact or parties to the lawsuits and that it would be rubber stamped.
Ruddie should be facing some federal charges for these suits as he has done this across many states. I am sure the companies and people who signed these contracts with Ruddie will be more than willing to testify to save their own skin.
I imagine Ruddie will be very very hard to find soon as I am sure he must know that with Levy on his case, that he wont be able to get away from this fraud so easily
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Conditionally...
"...I'm pretty outraged..." What, like almost awake?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: So Profile Defenders is a Prenda Pretenda?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Popcorn? Pretzels?
So, of course, I will be having BBQ wings, I just think this is super. (pass the bowl)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The punishments are a joke (See also over 6 fcsking years later and Steele is still a member of the bar).
And the process is between lawyers who extend every professional courtesy, and play games using archaic procedures & delaying tactics.
Funny, the targets always get the express ride to hell.
Well the lawyer said so, so you must be naughty.
The lawyer, when FINALLY someone points out that they've taken several dumps on the bench, gets the very professional and through treatment reserved for those high holy officers of the court.
Perhaps its time to admit, we've given far to much 'protection' to these mere mortals and they need to be reminded they are just like us peons.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: So Profile Defenders is a Prenda Pretenda?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Gee it's almost like they have no respect for the system, the rules, the oaths....
To be fair, were I a similarly warped individual who got a kick out of screwing people over for fun and profits I'd probably show the same level of respect as them, which is to say none at all.
When the system isn't respectable, it's not surprising that people don't respect it, even more so when they know that even if they get caught they'll get the high-court treatment and face a slap on the wrists at most.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
compunction
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: So Profile Defenders is a Prenda Pretenda?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]