The Global Business Travel Association last month filed a defamation lawsuit against an unidentified defendant who late last year anonymously emailed to GBTA employees, members and sponsors what the association described as "unsubstantiated allegations."
According to GBTA's complaint, filed May 8 in a Virginia district court, the email smeared leadership, accused the organization of "financial impropriety"—including misusing its tax-exempt status—alleged "self dealing and other improper contracts" and "asserted that various GBTA employees committed conduct that, if true, would constitute commercial fraud."
GBTA is seeking at least $500,000 in damages as well as an injunction that would prevent "Jane Doe" from "disparaging GBTA's name and/or reputation."
GBTA president and CEO Donna Kelliher in a memo to members in December 2013 acknowledged the email as it circulated among industry participants. She then wrote that "GBTA employees and some members received an anonymous email in which allegations were made in a threatening manner," according to the memo. "This email seemed to have the intent of causing disruption to our organization."
That email, obtained by BTN, was attributed to "a group of travel industry professional [sic] who are not happy" and the text alternates between the first-person plural and singular. The email, which includes other claims not cited in GBTA's court filing, urged the association to fire some executives, investigate various actions by leadership, review executive compensation practices, change bylaws to require majority board approval of executive salaries and take other actions.
GBTA earlier this year declined to comment on the substance of the claims amid "our investigation of this anonymous email," according to a GBTA spokesperson.
GBTA in court documents noted that it "took these allegations very seriously" and "convened a special committee" to investigate. That resulted in a February report to GBTA's board of directors, which, according to the lawsuit filing, "unambiguously dispelled the accusations contained in the December 2 email as being completely without merit." GBTA did not immediately reply to requests to share the report.
GBTA's court filing noted the defendant distributed the email to "more than fifty individuals, many of whom were members or corporate sponsors of GBTA."
The email "constituted an overt attack on GBTA and various GBTA employees," according to GBTA's complaint. "The contents of the December 2 email were false. They were unsubstantiated. And, they were allegations of fraud and other wrongdoing that constituted defamation per se under the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia."
While GBTA noted that "critical (or even divisive) emails from members are to be expected" within a trade association, the court document added, "criticism that contains false statements that subject the target(s) of scorn and ridicule is unlawful."
"As a result of these false statements," according to the court filing, "GBTA has suffered and will continue to suffer damages in the form of lost revenue and damage to its reputation."
While GBTA has not identified the defendant, court documents indicated the author sent the email in question from [email protected]. According to the court filing, the author "failed to provide or reference any evidence substantiating his/her allegations of fiscal mismanagement, excessive compensation, violations of federal tax law and personal enrichment by GBTA executives."
In that email, the author cited a desire to "prevent retaliation" in making the decision to remain anonymous.
A GBTA lawyer in a memorandum accompanying the initial complaint indicated that the association "will work diligently to identify the true name of the appropriate defendant and, once known, seek a summons to serve that defendant with process."