Reputation Management Company Linked To Bogus Libel Lawsuits Now Hyping Its Anti-Cyberbullying Skills (original) (raw)

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.

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