More evidence of seemingly retaliatory litigation by “activist” investor Jason Aintabi has recently surfaced.
In 2009, Aintabi, head of alleged investment manager Blackwells Capital, sued a man named Jonathan B. Horn over what appears to have been a minor slight.
Horn, who was described in the lawsuit as an independent contractor, had allegedly “defamed” Aintabi and his family’s real estate company Jester Group in a brief two-word quip to a colleague.
“[P]laintiffs contend that [Horn] repeatedly transacted business in New York in the course of his business relationship with plaintiffs; that the alleged defamatory statement, to wit, that plaintiffs ‘don’t close,’ arose out of that relationship,” reads the judge’s order.
Aintabi claimed that Horn had made the quip to a person named Alan Schoening, who operated a company that did business with Aintabi and Jester Group.
A New York court dismissed the lawsuit and, in dismissing it, noted the extraordinary nature of the claim:
“Here, however, the allegedly defamatory statement was neither made in the product of transactions in which defendant engaged in New York, nor is it directly about any such transactions. Indeed, the offending statement could have been made even had defendant not engaged in any transactions in New York.
Plaintiff has not adduced, and this court is not aware of, any case that holds that a non-domiciliary defamation defendant is subject to the long-arm jurisdiction of the state…
In view of the discussion above, the court need not discuss defendant’s alternative grounds for dismissal, or removal. Accordingly, it is hereby ordered that the motion to dismiss is granted.”
More recently, Aintabi filed a defamation lawsuit against a hospitality firm after an employee of the firm claimed to have witnessed him consuming a shot of alcohol from a woman’s cleavage at a hotel bar in Connecticut, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“His back was to me and I was walking with a large tray full of empty glasses and such and I couldn’t really look away from where I was going on. I think he may have been doing a shot from her cleavage. I dropped off my tray and went back out to the patio area and watched what was going on for a while, but did not see anything else like that,” read an email written by the employee, per the lawsuit filed by Aintabi.
Aintabi claimed that when the information from the email was relayed to other people at the hospitality company, it caused damage to his personal and professional reputation.
The judge in that case dismissed Aintabi’s suit with prejudice.
The Dallas Express reached out to Horn and asked him what his thoughts were on Aintabi and the New York lawsuit.
Horn said, “I’m sorry. I can’t comment.”
The Dallas Express has previously reported on Aintabi’s reputation for needlessly attacking other companies and people in the business world. Ancora Holdings Group LLC also seemed to reference Aintabi’s reputation in a press release concerning its bid to place a respected and experienced business leader on the Disney board to reverse the firm’s pattern of “polarizing actions and sustained value destruction.”
“We believe the record shows Mr. Aintabi is a publicity-seeking greenmailer with a questionable personal and business history,” Ancora leadership put it bluntly in a letter to fellow shareholders.
