Nearly bankrupt Saleen sues internet poster

[ViperSmith]

https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors...on_against_me/

More at link, but here is highlights below. Basically, Saleen somehow thinks that orders for their shitty Tesla mods were impacted because someone questioned them fulfilling sales.

If some guy posting on reddit causes your penny stock price to plunge, you have bigger issues.

Now what's my involvement in this mess?

I'm a small time Tesla investor and I researched Saleen as an investment opportunity when they announced they were doing the "Saleen Tesla" early last year. After pretty standard due diligence it became clear to me that it was a bad investment (that was early last year when the stock was at $0.30 now at $0.0006). I posted my general thoughts and findings on iHub, a website with message boards mainly for the OTC market. I was met with a barrage of critics and attacks, mostly empty arguments. I started responding to these critics, which were clearly meant to pump the stock, and started digging more into the filings, the history of the company and more especially on the claims they were making about Tesla. I started posting on here (Reddit) because posts about Saleen came up a few times. And also on blogs.

Here's the reddit thread they included as an exhibit (P-9) in the motion: Is Saleen lying in order to sell its version of the Tesla Model S?
They say that in this thread I "urged potential buyers of the Saleen Tesla vehicles to reconsider their decision in a disparaging comment which started with the following statement: "Saleen is running something closely resembling a Ponzi scheme/pump&dump".

And you know what? I don't know if this can have an impact on the case, but I never said that in that particular thread. Meaning the whole exhibit P-9 is a printout of the thread and it missing that particular quote.

I did say that in another thread though, but almost a year apart and I stand by it.
Like I explained in the comment, Saleen is taking deposits from customers, but they don't use the money to build cars or at least only a fraction of the money, therefore they always depends on more people giving deposits, but if they all come back wanting their cars, Saleen doesn't have the money to build them - not unlike a ponzi scheme.

They mention this reddit thread and a few blogs I wrote, but in each case, all my statements are backed by valid sources.

One of the most outrageous claims they make in the motion is that my posting on iHub increased in April this year, then the volume on Saleen's stock increased and the price crumbled. They are implying that my increased posting on the stock incited people to sell and therefore the volume increased and the price decreased.
But this is complete bullshit. Like I said earlier, Saleen's convertible notes started maturing in April which brought a ton of new shares on the market at a 38 to 40% discount so of course the price would fall. Blaming that on me is ridiculous. And yes, although I don't have the statistics, I assume my posting increased during that period, but that's because the whole board became flooded by pumpers, presumably from the noteholders trying to unload their newly converted shares. What I do on this board is respond to the pumpers with facts, so of course more pumpers = more posts to respond to.

[Schen]

Steve should have just kept building Mustangs.

--RS

[ViperSmith]

Steve should have just kept building Mustangs.

--RS

I am sure they are going to make the Tesla which goes 0-60 in 2.8 seconds faster!

[Schen]

I am sure they are going to make the Tesla which goes 0-60 in 2.8 seconds faster!

LOL yeah sure! It's just odd of him to do this or even think about doing it. I met Steve and he even signed my car and a diecast S7, was a really cool guy to talk with. I liked the idea of SMS too, great looking packages for the new cars but really haven't heard much since. It's a shame, really. I kinda feel like wiping his name off and having some of our GT3-R drivers sign my light bezel at Limerock.

--RS