ChannelAdvisor Sues Former Australian Employee for Defamation (AuctionBytes)
October 7th, 2009
| Tags: and-defamatory, former-employee, georgia, subsidiary-and
ChannelAdvisor Corporation filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Georgia on September 30th against a former employee who had worked for its Australian subsidiary and resides in Victoria, Australia. According to the complaint, the former employee sent out false and defamatory messages in August.
Original post:
ChannelAdvisor Sues Former Australian Employee for Defamation (AuctionBytes)
The former employee involved is a known problem here in Australia. She ran a business called Parents2Go which was the subject of Consumer Affairs litigation over its business practices and she has left many suppliers of that business shortchanged over failure to pay for goods supplied to her (which she sold and reaped the benefits from).
I am personally hopeful that there are some kind of criminal charges which can be brought against her.
Firstly the comments of Guy Stevens are incorrect and inaccurate. The employee was a victim of extortion and blackmail and person (s) associated with this action have been charged by the police and currently awaiting trial in the Victorian County Court. Guy Stevens has been warned by the police of the matter and warned of posts such as this attempting to intimidate a witness in a criminal matter.
Further please see below the press release – it should be noted that Kerri Van Veenendaal vigorously denies all accusations and has issued the statement below.
Australian ex-employee defends ChannelAdvisor legal action in Atlanta
The ex-employee being sued* in Atlanta by ChannelAdvisor has lodged a defense, denying all allegations in the civil action. Kerri Van Veenendaal who is being sued by the North Carolina based company has issued the defense in reply to the litigation issued by her ex-employer.
Ms. Van Veenendaal has stated to us “I feel that this action is a smoke screen for the real issues that ChannelAdvisor are facing”. Van Veenendaal further states, “It is a pity that ChannelAdvisor has spent time and money on a frivolous action which is incorrectly aimed at me when they would be better concentrating more on their own product development and customer service. ChannelAdvisor does not have a claim against me”. At the time of the alleged emails Van Veenendaal was with her husband of 30 years whilst he was in recovery from major life threatening open heart surgery.
Ms. Van Veenendaal was instrumental in launching ChannelAdvisor in Australia, exceeding all expectations whilst the company was under her management in that country. “Indeed the growth in the country and region was phenomenal” states Van Veenendaal. “We exceeded our budget every quarter for four quarters and the first year of operation we were above on all expected budget requirements which was totally unexpected by Head Office in North Carolina”. “The Australian business sector here was enthusiastic and embraced the belief that ChannelAdvisor was committed to putting a team on the ground in Australia and to have real time customer support in this country”.
ChannelAdvisor Australia Pty. Ltd., has been downsized since the unexpected termination of Ms. Van Veenendaal in June 2008. There are now two employees out of the 12 that were in the office at June 2008 remaining. Whilst this legal action is certainly interesting Van Veenendaal states that all property owned by the company were handed to her legal counsel shortly after she was terminated by a surprise email from the CEO, Scot Wingo and the then Vice President International, Jennifer Gibson. “I had no idea that I was going to be terminated in such a manner after surpassing all budget expectations and also securing the company a lucrative contract in Australia. The termination email, stated that ChannelAdvisor would pay all my contractual entitlements and termination salary but 18 months later I am still waiting to receive a reasonable payment. This recent action in the USA appears to be an attempt to add to my costs and plicate the legal action in Australia for my employment entitlements which has been ongoing since July 2008.”
In the Atlanta proceedings, it will be interesting to observe if ChannelAdvisor can actually establish and prove that it suffered losses by any purported breach of copyright from the sending of the email. Further ChannelAdvisor will also have to establish and prove that the statements in the email are in fact not true.
Van Veenendaal clearly states that she has not issued any public statements, press releases to customers since her termination in respect to ChannelAdvisor. She has been attempting to negotiate with ChannelAdvisor for her termination salary however to date she has been presented with many obstacles.
With all this Van Veenendaal remains positive on the future of ChannelAdvisor and their products “you can’t head up a company without believing in the product.”
Van Veenendaal hopes that the false accusations will be seen as such and by defending the action in Atlanta certainly anticipates that her innocence will prevail.