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Letter to the editor

Money Talk bloggers sued over comments

An ex-associate of Lou Pearlman is the plaintiff.

By HELEN HUNTLEY Personal Finance Editor
Published November 27, 2007

Internet Solutions Corp. of Orlando and marketing consultant Ayman "Alec" Difrawi are suing several critics who accused them of fraud in comments posted on the Money Talk blog on tampabay.com, the Web site of the St. Petersburg Times.

Difrawi is a former business associate of Orlando entrepreneur Lou Pearlman, whose bank fraud indictment and investment scheme are a popular subject on the blog.

Difrawi says he was not aware of the activities that led to the criminal and civil complaints filed against Pearlman and claims Pearlman defrauded him out of his business interest in a successful modeling company.

But posters on Money Talk and other sites have accused Difrawi and Internet Solutions of running phishing, spamming and other fraudulent operations unrelated to Pearlman. Difrawi's current affiliations include TooSpoiled.com, World Voice News and Instant Human Resources. The posters also frequently mention Difrawi's 1995 felony conviction for bank wire fraud, which he acknowledges, and a 1991 child abuse charge, for which adjudication was withheld.

In response, Difrawi sued last week in U.S. District Court in Orlando, accusing the critics of defaming him, portraying him in a false light, interfering with business relationships and conspiring against him. Neither the Times nor tampabay.com is named as defendants.

One defendant is Canadian author Les Henderson, who wrote a book about modeling scams and sued Difrawi and other former Pearlman associates for defamation two years ago. Other defendants are Daniel and Jeremy Scalf, Conrad Longmore and three "John Does" who post anonymously on blogs under the names Klaas Devries, Dilly McGilly and Sooper Joo.

Helen Huntley can be reached at huntley@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8230.

[Last modified November 27, 2007, 06:29:11]