Major United States bank Wells Fargo is suing shrimp distributor Worldwide Shrimp Company over a website defaming its executives.
Highland Park, Illinois-based Worldwide Shrimp and its executive William J. Applebaum published a website, wwshrimp.com, which lists the names, addresses, and phone numbers of several top Wells Fargo executives – along with derogatory nicknames.
For example, a relationship manager for Wells Fargo’s Credit Resolution Group is called “Little Big Dick,” while the bank’s counsel is referred to as a “prostitute.”
Worldwide Shrimp previously published the defamatory website in February 2019 – which included calling Wells Fargo a “terrorist organization” – but a judge ordered the company to take the website down.
The judge vacated the order a few months later, “in the hopes that defendants would not repost the content or similar content on the website,” Wells Fargo said in an emergency motion filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois – Eastern Division on 8 January, 2020.
“Defendants’ conduct in reposting the website with its defamatory and threatening content is so egregious that in addition to requiring the website to be taken down within 24 hours, defendants should be enjoined from posting the content again in any public forum, and defendants should now be sanctioned by imposing all costs and fees in preparing and appearing for this motion, and for all other relief this Court deems just and appropriate,” Wells Fargo said.
Worldwide Shrimp’s defamatory website presumably stems from a previous lawsuit filed by Wells Fargo against the supplier in 2017, after it allegedly defaulted on a USD 15 million (EUR 13.5 million) line of credit.
“By early 2017, Wells Fargo was convinced that a default had occurred and began to institute those self-help remedies,” Casetext reported.
“When Worldwide and Appelbaum refused to cooperate, Wells Fargo sued for breach of contract, breach of guaranty, and accounting. Worldwide and Appelbaum counterclaimed, alleging that no default had occurred and that Wells Fargo breached the agreement by prematurely instituting the self-help remedies,” Casetext said.
Worldwide Shrimp executives could not be reached for comment.
In a separate case, Worldwide Shrimp pleaded guilty in federal court in New Orleans, Louisiana to labeling shrimp caught in Mexico as U.S. shrimp. It allegedly sold more USD 100,000 (EUR 90,000) worth of the shrimp.
Logo courtesy of Wells Fargo
