A New Jersey Superior Court judge has ordered that the authors of a notorious anonymous report that wiped $3 billion off the market cap of gaming software giant Evolution AB should be named.
Evolution is suing the unknown authors for defamation. That’s because the report alleged the company was providing games to operators that did business in unregulated markets, including “banned terror states like Iran, Syria, and Sudan.”
A subsequent investigation by the New Jersey gaming regulator (DGE) found “no evidence” supporting the accusations. A separate probe by regulators in Pennsylvania reached the same conclusion. The claim caused the company’s shares to nosedive in November 2021.
Evolution is also suing Calcagni & Kanefsky (C&K), the New Jersey law firm that passed the report to the DGE on behalf of its anonymous client.
‘Lacks Veracity’
Up to this point, the unknown entity has been protected by attorney-client privilege as the court sought to balance Calcagni & Kanefsky’s obligation toward its client with the plaintiff’s right to get the information needed to pursue civil action.
In April 2024, Judge John C. Porto determined that more work needed to be done to establish whether there was any truth in the allegations contained in the report before Evolution could find out exactly who it was suing.
On Friday, Porto wrote he was satisfied that the report “lacks veracity,” adding that Evolution was “entitled to all relevant discovery necessary.”
“The identity of the client is clearly necessary to enable the plaintiff to fully address its legal claims,” the judge concluded, in an order seen by Next.io.
This information must be filed with the court by March 7 and must include the investigative firm that compiled the report and the entity that commissioned it.
Bet365 Dossier Also Exists
In November 2021, two Casino.org reporters were contacted separately by the same New York PR firm. In addition to the Evolution document, the firm had in its possession a report that sought to similarly discredit Bet365 and its alleged operations in China, which Casino.org has viewed.
In a telephone call, the owner of the firm told one reporter that the documents had been commissioned by a US-based gambling company whose motivation was to “level the playing field” in the US online casino markets. He subsequently denied this to the second reporter several weeks later.
The effort to discredit Bet365 appeared to be abandoned when the Evolution case blew up.
The post Evolution’s Anonymous Accuser to Be Named in Libel Case appeared first on Casino.org.
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