Posted at 5:00 a.m.
A Quebec journalist at the head of the most widely read electric vehicle news site on the planet is being sued in Quebec Superior Court by an American businessman after writing an article critical of his company’s fundraising campaign.
Fred Lambert, editor of Electrek, a site with 10 million monthly readers, published an article on July 6 in which he detailed the attempts of Steven Saleen and his company Saleen Automotive to raise funds while a fundraising campaign had ended badly for the company’s shareholders in the past.
“After writing his article, my client received an injunction request and a contempt of court summons in relation to an injunction received several years ago, explains Mr.e Neil A. Peden, attorney for Spiegel Sohmer, who represents Fred Lambert. Of course, it makes the role of journalist difficult if an injunction prevents you from talking about someone. »
In the Superior Court of the district of Longueuil, Steven Saleen and Saleen Automotive accuse Fred Lambert of having violated the conditions of an injunction adopted in 2015 in the wake of a series of posts published on the internet by Mr. Lambert and which concerned on the company’s fundraising efforts at that time.
Fred Lambert had indeed noticed in 2014 that Saleen Automotive, a Californian car modification company founded by Steven Saleen, a former racing driver, was making advertisements that he described as “questionable”.
For example, Saleen Automotive was bragging about partnering with Tesla, but I contacted Tesla, and they said they didn’t know these people.
Fred Lambert, Editor of Electrek
At the time, Mr. Lambert was not yet a journalist and published several posts on the Investors Hub site and on the Reddit forum in order to alert the growing community of people who were interested in electric cars. He received a request for an injunction from Steven Saleen ordering him to withdraw these tickets.
“I was 23 and had no money,” says Fred Lambert. All the lawyers I contacted told me that I would need at least $30,000 to defend myself. They suggested I accept the injunction and move on, which I did. »
Court of Longueuil
In the years that followed, Saleen Automotive’s stock value plummeted. “The stock went from being worth 90 cents to being worth a fraction of a cent,” says Lambert. As I feared, small investors lost their money. »
It was after realizing this summer that Saleen Automotive had just launched a fundraising campaign to sell modified Teslas that Fred Lambert once again looked into the subject.
The company is looking to raise $20 million, with a minimum investment of $500 per investor, he notes. “The same scenario repeats itself, the same people are involved. »
In its promotional materials, Saleen Automotive says this is the first time it has offered the public the opportunity to become a shareholder in the company.
They try to pretend that what happened in the markets never happened.
Fred Lambert, Editor of Electrek
The Press offered an opportunity to respond to the lawyers representing Steven Saleen and his company Saleen Automotive, but they did not respond.
Steven Saleen is now asking a court in Longueuil to find Fred Lambert in contempt of court for writing about the subject this summer, and is asking the court to impose a second injunction that would permanently ban him from alluding to his business or to his associates.
Me Peden, attorney for Fred Lambert, notes that the orders imposed several years ago have never been reviewed.
“It’s quite extraordinary that we can impose such restrictive orders without anyone objecting. We are not here faced with a case of gross defamation, without purpose, where we made gratuitous remarks. Right or wrong, my client did some research before saying what he has to say. It is journalistic work. »
Fred Lambert points out that his goal is not to challenge the court, but to disseminate information that deserves to be known.
“But there, we have millionaires in the United States who use the justice system in Quebec to try to silence me and intimidate me financially. I do not believe that it is the will of a court to seek to prevent information that has value for the public good from being disseminated. »