Phytotech Medical founder Ross Smith has vowed to take legal action against investor chat room HotCopper, following his resignation from the medical marijuana company today.
Phytotech Medical founder Ross Smith has vowed to take legal action against investor chat room HotCopper, following his resignation from the medical marijuana company today.
His resignation comes just days after controversy over threatening comments posted on his Facebook account, which he alleges was hacked.
The comments, which have since been deleted, were directed at a HotCopper user, who had questioned how Phytotech performance rights would be allocated to Mr Smith and managing director Boaz Wachtel.
The granting of performance rights was tied to whether Phytotech’s share price averaged 40 cents or 60 cents in the five days after its listing.
The company has yet to advise whether the performance rights will be granted.
After the comments were published to his Facebook page, and subsequently added to HotCopper, Mr Smith posted a status claiming his account was hacked by “what is looking like a very good smear campaign”.
Mr Smith told Business News today he was going to sue Hot Copper “because of the clear and blatant disregard for their own posting rules and major breaches of ASIC regulations in regards to the incredible personal attacks on me”.
He claimed one of the owners of Hot Copper had a vendetta against him.
“I am talking to a large plaintiff solicitor group that sue for a success fee and will be coming after everyone associated with Hot Copper and the posts,” Mr Smith said.
This morning, the medical marijuana company released a statement announcing Mr Smith’s resignation, but without explanation.
That’s less than two weeks after the company listed on the ASX in spectacular fashion, closing at 78 cents per share on its first day.
Phytotech shares closed 11.5 per cent lower at 42 cents per share.
In the company statement, Phytotech chairman and Steinepreis Paganin partner Peter Wall said Mr Smith had been instrumental in bringing the company together and it would not be where it is without his hard work and perseverance.
Mr Wall was unavailable today, to take questions on the resignation.
In the statement, Mr Smith said he was stepping down from the board confident the company would go on to become a huge success.
“I will continue to stay living in Israel while looking for the next big thing in biotechnology and technology,” he said.
Of the several posts still visible on Mr Smith’s Facebook page, one includes an image of a sniper rifle with three bullets resting on a target, with a caption saying “Missing my FN TAC 7.62mm sniper rifle at present. 800m practice rounds in target. It makes for a clean head shot to create red mist”.
