The co-founder of brewery and pub chain BrewDog was conned out of £100,000 amid a "relentless campaign of abuse".
James Watt hired fraudster Emili Ziem - whom he says he was "briefly in a relationship with" - to help identify the "trolls" behind the online ' bullying ' aimed at him.
He was accused on social media of harassing women and other criminality.
However he later discovered Ziem was herself a part of what he described as a two-year 'Take James Down' campaign spreading "appalling lies".
She sent messages from a fake Instagram account under the name Laura Keller.
Mr Watt eventually hired a private investigator to prove she was behind the page.
On September 2 the Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled against Ziem and she was ordered to repay Mr Watt the £100,000 earnings - originally paid in BitCoin - as well as £500,000 in damages.
It comes just weeks after the global drinks company, based in Ellon, Scotland, opened its latest branch in Waterloo, London - described as the biggest bar in the UK.
And ahead of another in Las Vegas, USA, due to open later this year.
In January, BBC Scotland broadcasted a documentary called 'The Truth About BrewDog' in which it was claimed Mr Watt, 40, had behaved inappropriately with female employees - allegations he denies.
In a lengthy post on his LinkedIn account on Monday, the entrepreneur - who launched the drinks company in 2007 with Martin Dickie - said the trolling saw him "harassed, defrauded and defamed", and took a "significant" impact on him and his family.
He felt he had "no choice" but to take up Ziem's offer to "help identify the people responsible", for which she asked for payment to do so.
"I was desperate to stop this horrific abuse, so I paid up," he explained.
"What we now know, and the court has found, is that she was actually one of the perpetrators and was operating an extremely active troll account against me as part of a dedicated network looking to ‘take James down’ (her words)," he continued.
"She gave me knowingly false information with the sole intention of deceiving me into agreeing to pay her."
Mr Watt went on to say: "She was, in fact, a key part of a network involved in a campaign to do as much damage to me and my business as possible, spreading false and defamatory information with the objective of destroying me personally and damaging our business."
He claimed Ziem was a 'whistleblower' behind the BBC documentary, something the broadcaster denied when contacted by the Mirror.
A spokesman also said no claims had to be removed following its original transmission and the BBC "stands by its journalism".
Mr Watt previously accused the Beeb of presenting "false allegations which the broadcaster failed to properly put to the company before transmission".
The show included allegations that "warnings" were made to new female employees about Mr Watt, as well as that some female staff members "were deliberately scheduled off-shift or accompanied by others to avoid attention from him".
Mr Watt said in a statement in March: "The so-called 'Truth about Brewdog' was anything but."
In his LinkedIn post from yesterday, he went on to say: "This is worth remembering while the BBC continues to advertise its attacks on us across its multiple platforms."
Mr Watt said if he ever sees any of the money ordered by the court he will give it to charity, and only took legal action in an effort to "defend my reputation in the face of relentless hostility".
He said the case has been a "massive distraction" to him amid the challenges of running a major business in a struggling economy but is "proud" of how far the firm and his team have come.
He added: "I hope the outcome of this case provides some context and begins to tell a slightly different story to what you may have read about BrewDog (and myself) over the past 18 months.
"The longer story is pretty extraordinary, and I’ve got enough material to fill a whole book. Watch this space!"
The BBC told the Mirror: "Emili Ziem was not a contributor, nor was she a source for any of the claims made in the programme.
"It is not true that claims relating to Mr Watt were wiped from the programme following its original transmission.
"The BBC stands by its journalism."
