Yesterday Friday, your humble scribe had an interesting mail exchange with Juan Ocampo, the guy from
this blog post that is or was (
i dunno which offhand) part of Canaccord and has been accused of defamation by John Icke of Cue Resources (CUE.v). Here follows the conversation and then afterwards we reprint the post in question underneath, just to make sure it's on hand and easily readable. First up though is the mail exchange and here it is, with the only redaction being the removal of the telephone number of Ocampo's lawyer:
Dear Otto,
Could I please ask you to remove the following post.There is parts of it that are not true and a legal proceeding has begun regarding the dissemination of this stockwatch document. Feel free to contact my lawyer David Varty (604-XXX-XXXX) if you have any questions.
Regards,
Juan Ocampo
Reply by your author:I think you mean "there are" parts of it.
So I'm assuming the plural. Would you mind telling me what parts are untrue? And why you think you can be the first ever person to edit my blog (and many have tried, believe me)?
o
Reply by Juan Ocampo:I cannot get into details but I am asking you as a favor to please do so. This lawsuit has nothing to do with Canaccord and as you already know it is not possible to short penny stocks for the average retail person. In the lawsuit states the message was written at 9PM who will be working at that time? Makes no sense to me.
Reply by your authorIf it's necessary to start legal action against me too, I suggest you get on and do it. Nobody has editorial control over my blog.
o
Reply by Juan Ocampo:No need for that. I will contact google directly. Read:
Hate Speech: We want you to use Blogger to express your opinions, even very controversial ones. But, don't cross the line by publishing hate speech. By this, we mean content that promotes hate or violence towards groups based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status or sexual orientation/gender identity. For example, don't write a blog saying that members of Race X are criminals or advocating violence against followers of Religion Y.
Reply by your author:Ok. Have fun. It's pretty clear that you haven't been down this road before. I have, and your pathetic empty threats have zero effect.
By the way, I'll be reprinting this conversation on the blog tomorrow.
o
Reply by Juan Ocampo: Do as you like.
And reprint we did. So just to remind y'all, here's the post that got Ocampo's knickers in a twist. Read on, kind lector:
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It was surprising to note that while your author was out and about doing about'n'out type things, the world didn't stop and news from LatAm Junior Mining World continued (
no respect these days...humph). Among the newsflow was
this report from Mike Caswell at Stockwatch and here's how it starts:
John Icke, the chairman of Cue Resources Inc., has filed a defamation suit against a Canaccord Genuity Corp. employee over posts on the Stockhouse forums. Mr. Icke says that Juan Ocampo, who works as a stock market quotes administrator at Canaccord's downtown Vancouver office, was responsible for a message that accused him of extortion. Mr. Icke is seeking general damages for the post, which he claims was false and defamatory.
Mr. Icke filed a brief notice of civil claim against Mr. Ocampo on March 16, 2011, in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. According to the suit, Mr. Ocampo was responsible for an Aug. 27, 2010, post on Stockhouse written under the user name "scuba2223." It was titled "Paraguay going after John Icke." The body of it read: "Paraguayan Authorities are looking for John Icke regarding Cue Resources. The news said he is involved in stealing documents and extorsion [sic]!"
As Mr. Icke sees it, the post meant that law enforcement officials were looking for him in Paraguay, and the media had reported that he was involved in theft and extortion. The post damaged his reputation by "implying that he is involved in criminal wrong-doing and conduct unbecoming management of a public company, and [is] otherwise untrustworthy."
In addition to the defamation allegations, Mr. Icke claims that Mr. Ocampo was looking to profit from the message. "At or about the time he posted statements ... Mr. Ocampo traded in the stock of CUE, with the intent of profiting from a decrease in the price of the stock," the suit reads. Mr. Icke does not provide any further details. (Trading records show that Cue closed at six cents on the day of the post, slightly down from 6.5 cents the day before.) CONTINUES HERE
OK, so we can start pointing fingers at dumbasses and the first finger points to Juan Ocampo, who apparently has nothing better to do with his time than trawl the next to useless world of bullboards and post silly messages thereon. Second finger points to the Human Resources department at The Can of Corn who can't spot a waste of space when they see one and hire any old fool (mind you, we've noticed that previously so no surprise there).
But a third finger also points tentatively and nervously in the direction of John Icke (after all, he might get busy with his legal beagles and slap a suit on IKN) and in a very quiet whisper of a voice nervously suggests he's guilty of FREAKIN DUMBASSERY AS WELL. Firstly, has this dude got nothing better to do than worry what they say about him on a freakin' bullboard? Y'know, like run a junior mining company and add shareholder value via exploration and suchlike?
Hmmmm...by the looks of things, he hasn't been too successful at that so far with or without bullboard critics of CUE's Paraguayan affairs. Then there's the practical side of it all, because if every company CEO or director took to heart every little thing written on bullboards about them and filled up their time with legal actions to heal their wounded egos, I doubt a single drill rig would get to turn anywhere. So take a bit of friendly advice John; you now know who your slagger-offer is and he's obviously a jerk. You got your name, he's got his shame, Can of Corn has its egg on face. So just drop it, yeah? I mean, if you insist that Ocampo was trading round CUE.v in this period and trying to influence the share price.....
...you're just going to turn your mini-crusade into a laughing stock and your strategic judgement about what matters and what matters not is far more important to CUE.v than your personal bleeding heart. So don't graduate from potential dumbass to full-scale dumbass and pursue this any further dude, cos if you do you're slapping Permanent Avoid on any company you're ever involved in.
