Korab boss admits to suing shareholder• by: ANDREW BURRELL •...

Korab boss admits to suing shareholder
• by: ANDREW BURRELL
• From: The Australian
• July 25, 2013 12:00AM

THE head of Perth-based gold explorer Korab Resources has admitted that he is suing one of his shareholders for defamation despite saying last week he would never do such a thing.
Korab executive chairman Andrej Karpinski is seeking damages from Queensland couple Campbell and Amber Rodgers over allegedly defamatory comments they made in emails, letters and on the internet chat forum HotCopper last year.
He claimed last week that the couple -- who are facing mounting bills over the legal action -- had sold all their Korab shares several years ago and he would never sue a current shareholder.
"I treat shareholders as my employers," he said. "It wouldn't cross my mind to do anything against their interests."
But when questioned by The Australian yesterday, Mr Karpinski admitted that Amber Rodgers remained a small shareholder in the company.
He said he discovered this only on Tuesday and had not intended to mislead last week.
He said the legal action would continue because it was aimed mainly at Mr Rodgers.
Mr Karpinski sued the couple over complaints they made about Korab's alleged failure to fulfil a 2010 promise to make an in-specie distribution of shares in two of its subsidiaries, Melrose Gold Mines and Lugansk Gold.
Korab revealed last year the planned distributions would not go ahead because they were contingent on Melrose and Lugansk being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
That sparked complaints from some investors, prompting the company to say it made an "inadvertent error" in 2010 when it said the distributions were not conditional on either of the two companies being admitted to the ASX.
Mr Karpinski's admission that he was suing an existing Korab shareholder came after his lawyer, Martin Bennett, wrote to HotCopper managing director Greg D'Arcy threatening to sue the company over its recent comments about the case.
In the letter, Mr Bennett said the investors being sued "have not been shareholders of Korab for many years".
When contacted yesterday, Mr Bennett said he had become aware of claims that Amber Rodgers was a shareholder and he was attempting to find out.
In his letter to Mr D'Arcy, Mr Barnett also threatened to lodge an official complaint against HotCopper with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.
Mr D'Arcy said HotCopper would defend any legal actions issued against it by Korab and Mr Karpinski.
He said a HotCopper fighting fund would be used to help meet the legal bills of those being pursued by Mr Karpinski.
Korab's legal brawl is the latest example of a resources company taking court action against small shareholders over allegedly defamatory comments made on internet chat forums.
Perth-based Empire Oil and Gas has sued some of its shareholders over the content of posts on HotCopper.
In 2010, Cudeco founder Wayne McCrae also initiated legal action over comments about his copper company on the website, but the case was dropped.