John Matze, a Henderson resident and one of the founders of alternative social media site Parler, is suing the company for wrongful termination after being dismissed from his role as CEO earlier this year.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in Clark County District Court, Matze seeks “millions in compensatory” damages for an “orchestrated theft” of his 40% ownership stake in the Henderson company.
Matze and Jared Thomson co-founded Parler in 2018 as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook, which ban people for certain kinds of extreme or intentionally misleading expression not allowed under their terms of service.
A hotbed of far right activists, Parler went dark after the Jan. 6 deadly attacks on the U.S. Capitol by extremist supporters of then President Donald Trump. The events caused Apple and Google to remove Parler from their app stores and Amazon Web Services to decline hosting the site.
The lawsuit alleges that deplatforming led to Matze’s dismissal by Rebekah Mercer, another co-founder who funded Parler during its launch in 2018. She’s the daughter of Republican billionaire donor Robert Mercer.
The Mercers were also financial backers of Steven Bannon’s activities with Breitbart and Cambridge Analytica as well as early Trump supporters. They are believed to have withdrawn support for both Bannon and Trump in the early years of the Trump administration.
The lawsuit alleges that Matze “was abruptly ousted in violation of the law and public policy for endeavoring to preserve Parler’s commitment to free expression while combating any misuse by violent extremists and domestic terrorists in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol. Rather than protect Parler, its other owner, Rebekah Mercer, sought to co-opt it as a symbol or as the ‘tip of the spear’ for her brand of conservatism, and plotted to force Matze out as CEO, manager, and member, and steal his forty percent (40%) ownership interest.”
Parler in January said it had more than 12 million users when it was forced offline. Many came to the site after Trump was banned from Twitter for advancing lies about election fraud and encouraging the Capitol insurrection.
The lawsuit estimates the site was worth upwards of a billion dollars, of which Matze no longer has a stake.
“This outlandish and arrogant theft, which occurred in Nevada, is the product of a conspiratorial agreement and actions taken both inside and outside of Nevada, that include intimidating threats and defamatory accusations of misconduct all designed to bully and deprive Matze of his valuable personal property and legal rights,” the suit alleges. “This scheme is epitomized by oppression, fraud and malice, for which Matze is entitled to punitive damages trebling (at a minimum) the millions that he is owed in compensatory damages.”
Matze, through his attorney James Pisanelli, wasn’t available to comment. Matze “looks forward to presenting his claims in court and being vindicated,” the attorney wrote in a statement.
Click here to view the article.
LAS VEGAS (Nov. 5, 2020) – Founding partners James J. Pisanelli and Todd L. Bice, of the litigation firm Pisanelli Bice PLLC, announced today the firm earned seven Tier 1 rankings by U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” for 2021.
The firm’s top-level designations are in the areas of Bet-the-Company Litigation, Appellate Practice, Commercial Litigation, Construction Law, Litigation – Construction, Litigation – Mergers and Acquisitions, and Litigation – Real Estate.
Pisanelli Bice has a long history in the U.S. News – Best Lawyers® rankings, having consecutively earned recognition since 2011.
The firm was named to the top tier based on a comprehensive evaluation process that includes client and peer evaluations of the firm’s expertise, responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, civility, and whether they would refer another client to the firm. To be eligible, firms must have at least one attorney in the current edition of Best Lawyers in America©, which is one of the oldest and most respected peer-review publications in the legal profession.
Pisanelli Bice’s Tier 1 rankings will be included in the 11th annual edition of “Best Law Firms”- a definitive reference tool for legal representation across the U.S. The rankings also are available at http://bestlawfirms.usnews.com.
About “Best Law Firms”
The U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer reviews from leading attorneys in their field, and reviews of additional information provided by law firms as part of the formal submission process. To be eligible for a ranking, a law firm must have at least one lawyer who is included in Best Lawyers in America© in that particular practice area and metro. For more information on U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms,” please visit http://bestlawfirms.usnews.com/.
