~ A complaint based on online interaction between a a ghost spammer and some individuals in the community has reached the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. A mother and her son initiated the lawsuit against Toronto’s largest newspaper and its publisher and a reporter seeking a total of one million dollars for allegedly damaging their reputation. But the complaint is questionable as the emailer who triggered it is an unknown, a phantom or a ghost taking shelter in anonymity, presumably one or a group of individuals impacted by the paper’s unrelenting exposés.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TORONTO – A self-praising solicitor for a local charity who is not a lawyer has disowned the activities of a phantom-phantom spammer, saying he’s not the person behind a rash of emails attacking the publisher of Toronto’s largest Filipino newspaper and a reporter shortly before the holding of a fashion show in June.
Selected recipients of the spams have not positively identified the fictitious “Lesley Reyes” but Jeff Rustia, who claims to be so many things in Toronto, has come out to distance himself from the name or person in a lawsuit against Balita newspaper, its publisher and editor Tess Cusipag, and this reporter.
Rustia and his mother, Melinda Parreno Rustia, and their Kol Hope Foundation, are the complainants in a suit against the publication and the two editors seeking one million dollars for allegedly damaging their reputation in the email exchanges involving the ghost emailer.
“The co-plaintiff (Jeff Rustia) denies x x x and alleges that none of the parties to this action know the real identity of the individual or individuals using this email address”, which, according to him, was “lesleyreyes@gmail.com”.
He also claimed that Ms. Cusipag had “stated that Mr. Rustia had been sending harassing e-mails to her and Romeo Marquez under the e-mail address lesleyreyes821@gmail.com.”
But there’s no “Lesley Reyes” to begin with, phony or not. If one existed, it’s one of those fantastic creations of Jeff Rustia himself. Is “Lesley Reyes” Jeff Rustia?
“The true measure of the additional damage to Mr. Rustia’s reputation must be measured in relation to the fact that the co-defendants Marquez and Cusipag forwarded (these) harassing and provocative e-mails from the lesleyreyes@gmail.com (‘lesleyreyes’) account to the recipients . . . ” the complaint said.
“Lesley Reyes” was truly alive in the Rustias’ mind, as this allegation shows, thus: “The co-defendant Cusipag sent an email x x x which was copied on a mass basis and included x x x as recipients, accusing lesleyreyes of sending a ‘poison letter’ to Balita’s advertisers, ‘lambasting Balita’ and demonstrating low character (by implication) . . . ”
Again: “The co-defendant Cusipag also sent lesleyreyes an email x x x which was copied on a mass basis to individuals x x x; in this email she stated that lesleyreyes had unlawfully harassed ‘them’ (presumably the co-defendants Cusipag and Marquez).”
The real sham spammer (please take note of the spelling and gmail address) is “Leslie Reyes” alias Lying Leslie at “lesliereyes821@gmail.com”.
Why did the Rustias bring a lawsuit against Balita and its two editors based on false information concocted by Jeff Rustia? Is he masquerading as “Lesley Reyes”?
This is the first time in many months that Jeff Rustia made the denials that he was “Leslie Reyes”, a move that would no longer impact the staging of a fashion week he had initiated in June 2013 that capitalized on the celebrations of Philippine independence day (June 12) and the national hero Jose Rizal to attract community and corporate support.
The fashion show had 30 sponsors in different categories, three partners (the Philippine departments of foreign affairs and tourism and Festivals and Events Ontario) and 10 media partners, including Atin Ito newspaper which reported in August 2013 that the event Kol Hope Foundation had organized had donated $10,000 to “the newly-launched Kol Hope Fund within World Vision”.
While information about Kol Hope Foundation, the charity, is available online, none seems to exist about “Kol Hope Fund within World Vision”. A question is also being asked: what percentage of total revenue does the $10,000 donation represent?
The question of who “Leslie Reyes” (not Jeff Rustia’s Lesley Reyes) was has led Ms. Cusipag to offer a $2,000 reward to whoever can establish the spammer’s identity. Days later, “Leslie Reyes” stopped and the exchanges quieted down. It was less than two months before Jeff Rustia’s much ballyhooed Canada Philippine Fashion Week took place.
Is there a connection between “Leslie Reyes” and Jeff Rustia and his fashion show, and “Leslie Reyes” alias “Lying Leslie” and Jeff Rustia?