From Kovalenko v. Epik Holdings Inc., decided today by Judge Tana Lin (W.D. Wash.):
This action arises out of Plaintiff's action for defamation and invasion of privacy against Defendants Epik Holdings, Inc. and Anonymize, Inc. Plaintiff is a Ukrainian businessman engaged in international trading of coal products. In January 2022, a website called 368.media published an article representing that, in part, Plaintiff was involved in illegal schemes to ship coal into Ukraine with the assistance of corrupt Russian and Ukrainian officers, earning profit margins that resulted in the overpayment for coal and electricity by consumers. 368.media removed the article at the request of Plaintiff's counsel. In the same month, another website, www.weeklynewsreview.com, also published the article. Plaintiff was able to secure a court order in Cyprus directing that the second article be deleted, which was subsequently completed.
On or around January 29, 2022, yet another website, www.warsawpoint.com, published the article (the "Third Article"). Plaintiff's counsel emailed the website on January 29, demanding that it remove the Third Article. The following day, Plaintiff's counsel received a response containing a link to an encrypted and self-destructing message, which demanded a payment of 0.1 bitcoin for the removal of the Third Article. While Plaintiff has not been able to identify the owner of www.warsawpoint.com, Plaintiff believes that Defendant Epik owns the domain for the website, that Defendant Anonymize provides services to protect the identity of the website's owner, and that the two Defendants jointly operate the website.
