This just in..

[owen@autodesk.com (D. Owen Rowley)]

What an incredible coincidence, this is excerpted from the RISKS digest.

LUX ./. owen


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Date: Thu, 7 Oct 93 08:40:21 -0700
>>From: Tom Hanrahan <hanrahan@sequent.com>
Subject: Epitope suit uses computer bulletin board

>>From The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), October 7, 1993, by Vince Kohler

Epitope Inc. used information subpoenaed from the computer bulletin- board
service Prodigy to prepare a $5 million federal lawsuit against a Kidder,
Peabody vice president in Kansas City, Mo.  

Lois Rosenbaum, a lawyer for Epitope, said the company used information from
Prodigy Services Co. to track down A. Karl Kipke, who works for Kidder,
Peabody in Kansas City, Mo.  The lawsuit claims that Kipke used a false name,
William Smith, to log onto a Prodigy electronic bulletin board on three
occasions in August.  Each time, the lawsuit contends, Kipke wrote lengthy
commentaries he knew were false and defamatory about Epitope, the company's
management practices and its attempts to gain federal approval of an oral
device used to detect the AIDS virus.

[...] "We certainly believe the price of the stock is lower than it would've
been but for these false allegations, Rosenbaum said.  "And I think it's clear
that the articles were written for the purpose of negatively influencing the
price of the stock."  [...] Epitope's lawsuit says Kipke and his clients were
holders of short positions in Epitope stock.  [...] Epitope's lawsuit seeks $5
million in punitive damages from Kipke and alleges defamation, manipulation of
security prices, securities fraud and intentional interference with business
relations.

Rosenbaum acknowledged that the lawsuit's electronic dimension is "a very
unusual situation."

Submitter note: The omitted sections of text basically say that Kipke was
unavailable for comment and explain what holding a "short position" means.

-- Tom Hanrahan, hanrahan@sequent.com

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