Asia Economic Institute et al v. Xcentric Ventures LLC et al

Filing 103

DECLARATION of Jan Smith in support of EX PARTE APPLICATION for Order for Temporary Restraining Order for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) EX PARTE APPLICATION for Protective Order for Preventing Interference with Witnesses EX PARTE APPLICATION for Order for Temporary Restraining Order for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) EX PARTE APPLICATION for Order for Temporary Restraining Order for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) EX PARTE APPLICATION for Order for Temporary Restraining Order for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) EX PARTE APPLICATION for Order for Temporary Restraining Order for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) EX PARTE APPLICATION for Order for Temporary Restraining Order for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) EX PARTE APPLICATION for Order for Temporary Restraining Order for Preservation of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) 101 filed by Plaintiffs Asia Economic Institute, Iliana Llaneras, Raymond Mobrez. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A to Declaration of Jan Snith (January 15, 2009 email), # 2 Exhibit B to to Declaration of Jan Smith (January 16, 2009 email), # 3 Exhibit C to to Declaration of Jan Smith (November 9, 2009 email), # 4 Exhibit D to to to Declaration of Jan Smith (April 10, 2010 email))(Borodkin, Lisa)

Asia Economic Institute et al v. Xcentric Ventures LLC et al

Doc. 103

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DANIEL F. BLACKERT, ESQ., CSB No. 255021 LISA J. BORODKIN, ESQ. CSB No. 196412 Asia Economic Institute LLC 11766 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 260 Los Angeles, CA 90025 Telephone [phone] Facsimile [phone] [e-mail] [e-mail] [e-mail] [e-mail] Attorney for Plaintiffs, Asia Economic Institute LLC, Raymond Mobrez, and Iliana Llaneras UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA ) Case No.: 2:10-cv-01360-SVW-PJW ) ) DECLARATION OF JAN SMITH ) ) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) vs. ) ) XCENTRIC VENTURES, LLC, an ) Arizona LLC, d/b/a as BADBUSINESS ) BUREAU and/or ) BADBUSINESSBUREAU.COM ) and/or RIP OFF REPORT and/or ) RIPOFFREPORT.COM; BAD ) BUSINESS BUREAU, LLC, organized ) ) and existing under the laws of St. ) Kitts/Nevis, West Indies; EDWARD MAGEDSON an individual, and DOES ) ) 1 through 100, inclusive, ASIA ECONOMIC INSTITUTE LLC, a California LLC; RAYMOND MOBREZ an individual; and ILIANA LLANERAS, an individual, Defendants.

Declaration of Jan Smith - 1

Dockets.Justia.com

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I , Jan Smith, declare under penalty of perjury as follows: 1. My name is Jan Smith. I am a United States Citizen, a resident of the State of North Carolina, I am over 18 years of age, and if called to testify in this Honorable Court or other proceeding I could and would give the following testimony which is based upon my own personal knowledge unless otherwise stated. 2. I am an educated, professional woman. I formerly worked as a stockbroker. I have Series 7, Series 63, Series 65 and Series 33 licenses and state insurance licenses in 6 states. I worked as an Account Executive with Dean Witter from 1993 to 1995. Thereafter, I opened my own firm and was the President and owner of Sterling Investment Incorporated from 1996 to 2004, when I retired due to my diagnosis with breast cancer. 3. I am extremely interested in the outcome of this case. I flew at my own expense to the hearing in this matter on July 12, 2010. I am hoping there will be a trial so that people like me can at least tell my side of the story in a public hearing. Ripoff Report does not let me tell my side of the story. They do not post all of my rebuttals, and they do not let me post a rebuttal for every report about me. This is contrary to what they advertise on their website at www.ripoffreport.com and in their emails to me personally. 4. I cannot afford to pay any money to have an IT consultant push the reports down in the Google listings or to the Defendants to be in the Corporate Advocacy Program. I relied on Defendants' advice to post free rebuttals to their website. Attached hereto as Exhibit "A" is a true and correct copy of an email I received dated January 15, 2009 from [e-mail] stating that "your comments will be best served and will benefit the Reported business or individual if you put these comments with an existing Rip-off Report that is against the business or individual instead of posting a new Report... You need to click on the

Declaration of Jan Smith - 2

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REBUTTAL Box at the end of the specific Rip-off Report these comments belong with." 5. There were several instances where I was unable to post rebuttals to reports about me. I registered with the website and filled out the forms, but my rebuttals never appeared. Attached hereto as Exhibit "B" is a true and correct copy of an email I sent to [e-mail] dated January 16, 2009 complaining that my rebuttals were not posting and asking for help. 6. Ripoff Report states in many places that it does not take down reports. It says so on the website and in emails. Attached hereto as Exhibit "C" is a true and correct copy of emails I received on November 9, 2009 from [e-mail] stating "...we cannot remove reports from the website." 7. 8. Ripoff Report also states on their website and in emails that they Because I believed that Ripoff Report does not take down reports, I never change reports. believed I had no legal recourse and no options. Everything I had read about Ripoff Report led me to believe that a lawsuit could not get reports taken down or changed. 9. Because of this, I contacted about six or seven public officials to see if the law could be changed. One of these was California State Senator Tom Harman. There were some Ripoff Reports about Senator Harman. I engaged in email correspondence with a staff member of Senator Harman named Eileen from around Thanksgiving time 2009 to December 2009. Senator Harmon's staff seemed interested in helping me but our correspondence ceased in December 2009. 10. Beginning on January 20, 2020, Ripoff Report's General Counsel, David Gingras, initiated email correspondence with me. I had not given Mr. Gingras my email, but he obtained it from my user records on Ripoff Report. We exchanged several messages by email, including one about this California lawsuit.

Declaration of Jan Smith - 3

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11.

I asked Mr. Gingras for help in taking down or changing my reports.

Mr. Gingras gave me his phone number and asked me to call him. In an email to me dated April 10, 2010, Mr. Gingras stated: "I know I never told you this, but I argued with Ed Magedson on . . . .Of course, as you know, Ed [Magedson] has a policy of simply never taking stuff down, so he asked me why we should treat your situation differently than everyone else. I responded with the points you note below, and eventually I just explained to him that sometimes you don't need a reason for doing something...you should just do it to be nice to another person. Attached hereto as Exhibit "D" is a true and correct copy of email I received on April 10, 2010. 12. On April 13, 2010 at 7:54:59 P.M. Eastern Time, I had a telephone conversation with Mr. Gingras that lasted 30:06 minutes. I called him from my home phone to the number he had given me in the email, (480) xxx-xxxx. 13. In the 30-minute April 13, 2010 telephone call, we discussed at length my desire to take down or change reports about or by me. In this call, Mr. Gingras told me the story of the 16-year old girl again and told me that they "took down" the report about her father. Mr. Gingras, he explicitly told me that Ripoff Report "took down a report." 14. There was no confusion that he meant that they had redacted a report. He said they took it down. He told me he would ask Ed Magedson if he would "take down" my reports. I am certain of what we discussed in this call because I then talked about the call in my group therapy session the following Monday and about how I hoped he would help me by taking down the reports. The doctor's notes of this therapy session would confirm that. 15. I spoke again with Mr. Gingras on June 3, 2010 at 2:40:52 PM Eastern Time for 39:00 minutes, as reflected in my telephone records.

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16.

In my phone call with Mr. Gingras on June 3, 2010, I asked him,

"Why won't you help people like Tina?" This was referring to my friend, Tina Norris. Mr. Gingras said "We do." Mr. Gingras invited me to have Ms. Norris call him. I thanked Mr. Gingras and he said "I haven't done anything for you. Don't thank me." I subsequently called Ms. Norris on June 3, 2010 at 3:21 PM Eastern Time for 1:54 minutes. During this call, I told her to call Mr. Gingras. I am informed and believe that Ms. Norris called Mr. Gingras that same day. 17. I had other conversations with Mr. Gingras on July 8, 2010 at 7:10:13 PM Eastern Time for 11:12 minutes, July 8, 2010 at 7:55:34 PM Eastern Time for 7:24 minutes, and on July 9, 2010 at 12:21:14 PM Eastern Time for 4:12 minutes. 18. I had three reports on Ripoff Report about me. There is currently only one. I had reports posted about me under the category of suspicious activities. These reports are gone. In fact, this category no longer exists. I do not recall exactly when they came down, but know that only one report currently shows up on a search of my name. 19. On or about July 20, 2010, I tried to log into my account at ripoffreport.com and I could not log in. I understand that my account has been deactivated. I did not do so.

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