Earlier this week the news that Sam Sethi is suing TechCrunch hit, and as was expected Michael Arrington posted the legal documents, just as he has done before. The responses to the law firm’s letter to TechCrunch and Arrington have also been reposted, so if you want to dig into what has been said thus far, this is the only place I know of. The TechCrunch stance is obvious, of course:
Needless to say, we think these claims have no merit, otherwise we would not have written the posts in the first place, or would have retracted.
I did an email interview with Sethi, after he got in touch with me and wanted me to correct or retract the news story (which I didn’t do, obviously). I figured an interview would be the best way to get Sethi’s side of the story.
The interview spanned a couple of days, and was made via email.
Why have you decided to sue TechCrunch?
To clear up the lies written by Mike Arrington. To seek costs for the printing of a stolen termsheet and to put the record straight.
The termsheet mentioned is a leaked document which TechCrunch published. The source is said to be an anonymous one.
What do you hope to gain from the process?
Vindication and reward for the editors of Blognation.
Would you like to comment on Arrington’s claim that you are or have been sued, and that you are or have been banned from acting as a director or manager in a company as a result of these lawsuits/complaints?
I placed a link to the disqualified directors directory on companies house here in the UK. That is enough to tell you that I am not disqualified. Equally Starr did try to sue me but this was overturned by the courts in UK.
So you are not involved in any other lawsuits at this time, nor are you in any way hindered to run a business legally?
Yes I am closing a case against Oliver Starr but nothing is preventing me from running a business legally.
The mentioned link is Companies House’s disqualified directors directory. A search for “Sethi” doesn’t return any hits, so he is definitely not in that directory right now. The Starr mentioned is Oliver Starr, who posted an open letter to Sethi back in December 2007, regarding Blognation. That’s a story in itself. When asked, Sethi didn’t want to share his side of the story at this time.
I continued to push the issue about Sethi being legally hindered to manage a company the day after. It does shed some more light on the matter.
So you are not involved in any other lawsuits at this time, nor are you in any way hindered to run a business legally?
I answered this last night. I was invovled in a previous business where my business partner stolen monies and put it in his personal bank account. I had to pay back that money in order that I was no associated with the issue and resigned from the company. My partner was however banned as a director which is what Arrington is hinting at and trying to associate with me.
Sethi didn’t want to add anything more than this, and referred to the ongoing lawsuit of course, which is understandable. I did, however, comment on the fact that he’s in the UK and is trying to sue an American company on US servers.
There is TC UK/europe and that is up to a court although right now TC are hiding behind that issue.
I’m not so sure about that, actually. Unless there is an actual TechCrunch company or person responsible in the UK, how will Sethi get to them? Then again, I’m not a lawyer so I wouldn’t know.
So there you have it, Sethi’s take on the lawsuit, why he filed it, and his response to Arrington’s post on CrunchNotes. When asked to comment, Arrington referred to his post and the law firm’s response to the lawsuit within.
Sethi’s answers in this interview does clear up a few things, but until everything surrounding Blognation is on the table, it is hard to know what really happened and who did what. One thing’s for sure though, the voices speaking up against Sethi in this endeavor are numerous, and it is in everyone’s interest that the truth will be unfolded. Except anyone not playing by the rules, of course, but let’s hope there is as little of that in this affair as possible.
Sadly, I doubt this lawsuit is the end of it, nor will it tell all.
