roland bleyer sues google over fraud claims

Port and rail financier Roland Bleyer sues Google over fraud claims
Date
April 26, 2014
11 reading nowRead later
Ben Butler
Ben Butler
Business reporter

The proposed financier of a $6.4 billion port and rail project, former hair clinic operator Roland Bleyer, is suing search engine Google for defamation over links to websites he claims paint him as a large-scale fraudster.

At issue are seven search results that link through to a Malaysian blog, a finance news website and material on the website of the US corporate regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an amended statement of claim filed with the NSW Supreme Court in August, Mr Bleyer alleges the links defame him by implying he ''had committed multibillion-dollar scams'', ''had stolen credit card numbers from US citizens'' and been engaged in fraud.

Mr Bleyer also complained the links carried the imputation he ''was reasonably suspected by the police of being criminally involved in illegal drug activity'' and ''had so conducted himself as to warrant the bringing of many criminal actions against him over the years''.

He wants unspecified damages and an order forcing Google to take down the search results. Google has been contacted for comment.

In a separate NSW Supreme Court case, Mr Bleyer is also suing one of the websites linked to by Google, OffshoreAlert, which is based in Florida, over some of the same allegations.

This week, Padbury Mining, a small iron ore explorer based in West Perth, confirmed it had struck a deal with companies controlled by Mr Bleyer to raise the $6.4 billion needed to build a port at Oakajee, on the West Australian coast, and a 570-kilometre rail line to inland mine sites.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/port-and-rail-financier-roland-bleyer-sues-google-over-fraud-claims-20140425-379se.html#ixzz2zvsox4bH