Two Aim-listed oil firms have won court orders to uncover the identity of individuals they claim are posting damaging rumours anonymously on online investor bulletin boards.
Nighthawk Energy and Nostra Terra Oil and Gas are both considering further action against the individuals who posted comments on the websites iii and ADVFN. One is believed to have been behind 500-600 postings and used a number of pseudonyms.
Nighthawk Energy's managing director, David Bramhill, said the individuals had used the bulletin boards to post "extremely damaging" rumours about the company, as well as subjecting him to personal abuse. "This is not just a guy calling me a fat bastard, which they do, this is serious stuff that is undermining the company's operations. I have stock brokers asking me if there is any truth in them. They bring my wife into it as well and I am not going to put up with it anymore. A lot of chief executives are fed up with this. It is going to reach a head as a broader issue, there has to be some tighter regulation."
He said some of the false rumours included speculation that the company owed money and that its operations in the US had run into trouble.
In statements issued yesterday, Nighthawk and Nostra Terra said the court order had been granted in June and that they have now established the identities of the various individuals behind the postings, and were considering civil proceedings against them for defamation.
The Financial Services Authority is also understood to be taking a look at the case. A spokesman said bulletin boards were covered by the usual market abuse rules, but admitted there was no effective way of policing them, given the volume of postings and the fact that most are done anonymously. "The problem is that it is so vast, that we are reliant on participants in the market to inform us."
He said the majority of postings were aimed at small companies, with fewer shares in issue, where it was easier to impact the price with rumours.
In 2005, the FSA fined an individual £15,000 for distributing dishonestly obtained information on a message board.
A spokesman for iii said company policy was to examine complaints and comply with court orders, but said it would not usually hand over user information under data protection laws.