Fayetteville Observer Suspected of Destroying Evidence of Click Fraud

etteville NC) In 2005 and 2006, web hosting company AITwww.AIT.com filed an FBI criminal complaint and lawsuit against FayettevillePublishing Company (FPC) in Cumberland County, NC alleging that the localFayetteville Observer, www.fayettevillenc.com / www.fayobserver.com or FayettevillePublishing Company (FPC) of committing online Click Fraud against its local,classified and national advertisers by inflating its web traffic to its website. Thelawsuit alleged that the manufactured traffic's sole intent is to drive up thenumber of impressions and clicks so it could charge advertisers more money. AITplaced the criminal complaint on hold until recently. During the litigation, FPCservers were maintained by a third party until a court ruled that the servers bereturned to FPC, who in turn agreed to preserve the servers in tact as evidenceuntil the litigation between the parties was concluded. On September 14th, 2007, AIT filed a TRO requesting the court to intervene andexpressing concerns that FPC may have spoiled or destroyed the evidence on theservers even though litigation is still ongoing. The motion alleges the concernarose because FPC asserted that it was under no obligation to preserve the evidence.However, the transcripts of the court proceedings that returned the web servers toFPC indicate that FPC agreed to preserve the servers as evidence. Company officialsat AIT indicate that they have reopened the FBI criminal investigation and haveasked the FBI to intervene to protect the evidence on the FPC web servers. AIT company officials also said that the day after FPC attorneys asserted they hadno obligation to preserve the evidence, Paul Woolverton, a reporter from FPC, wentto the Cumberland County Courthouse to obtain a copy of the transcripts from thehearing. We have a copy of the document where Mr. Woolverton signed for thetranscripts the day after attorneys from both sides discussed the issue, saidClarence Briggs, CEO of AIT. I find this very odd, considering that we haverecently uncovered and expressed our concerns about FPC employees posting derogatoryand libelous information on the web about AIT and its employees for the past severalyears, often anonymously. Of course, the same FPC web servers are involved here aswell. AIT is the company that led the class action lawsuit against Google.AIT has also worked with the FBI and Senate Judiciary Committeeregarding Click Fraud and its potential ties to funding organizedcrime and terrorism. I have just returned from DC again discussingthis issue with various officials, said Briggs. It is amazingthat we produce over 60,000 pages of discovery and evidence and daysof depositions to substantiate our allegations while FPC managed toproduce very little in discovery. The primary thing we asked of themwas to protect the core evidence maintained on the original webservers. AIT started the Click Fraud portal www.igeryon.org as anon-profit clearing house to address the issue. The complaint filedby AIT against FPC is located there along with extensivedocumentation about Click Fraud.

Source: Express-Press-Release.com

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