Company Who Hires Actors To Protest Named In Lawsuit Regarding Extortion Campaign
According to a lawsuit filed by a Czech investor, a Beverly Hills firm has been used to run an extortion campaign against Zdenek Bakala, who serves on the advisory boards of both the Aspen Institute and Dartmouth College.
Bakala alleges that Prauge investment manager Pavol Krupa (seen below) hired Crowds on Demand to pay protesters to march near his home in Hilton Head, S.C., as well as sending emails and calling both Aspen and Dartmouth.
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Bakala alleges that Krupa has threatened to expand the campaign even further unless Bakala pays him a whopping $23 million.
Crowds on Demand has hired actors to protest a Masons convention in San Francisco, lobby the New Orleans City Council on behalf of a power plant operator, and act like supportive fans and paparazzi at an L.A. conference for life coaches, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Neither Krupa or Crowds on Demand founder Adam Swart would confirm or deny the allegations, but Swart called the claims meritless in an emailed statement.
“Not only will I vigorously defend myself against the allegations in the complaint but I am also evaluating whether to bring my own claims against Mr. Bakala,” Swart said.
President Trump called the protesters who showed up during the Kavanaugh hearings as “paid professionals” and for the public to not fall for their charade.
“The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers”
The very rude elevator screamers are paid professionals only looking to make Senators look bad. Don’t fall for it! Also, look at all of the professionally made identical signs. Paid for by Soros and others. These are not signs made in the basement from love! #Troublemakers
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2018
On Crowds on Demand’s website, it boasts that it staged a rally supporting an unnamed foreign leader when visiting the United Nations. “The concern was ensuring that the leader was well received by a U.S. audience and confident for his work at the U.N. We created demonstrations of support with diverse crowds.”
The Los Angeles Times reported:
“In the Bakala case, Crowds on Demand is accused of spreading misinformation through a website, putting on protests and organizing a phone and email campaign targeting several U.S. institutions with ties to Bakala, who got an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and had an estimated net worth topping $1 billion earlier this decade, according to Forbes.”
The website StopBakala.org, which Bakala alleges was set up by Crowds on Demand, Swart, and Krupa, accuses Bakala of breaking a promise to sell company-owned apartments to employees, then taking excessive profits out of the company-which filed for bankruptcy in 2016, and bribing officials to buy the government’s stake in the mining company for a lowball price. It’s important to note that a Krupa investment fund is a shareholder in the company.
In the lawsuit, Bakala, who holds dual U.S. and Czech citizenship, says that all of the allegations are false and are part of the extortion campaign by Krupa. He alleges that Krupa offered to cease the campaign altogether if Bakala paid him the $23 million for OKD shares owned by Krupa’s investment fund.
“Defendants are pursuing a campaign of harassment, defamation, and interference in the business affairs of Zdenek Bakala, which they have expressly vowed to expand unless he pays them millions of dollars,” Bakala’s attorneys wrote in the suit, which names Krupa, Crowds on Demand and Swart as defendants.
Crowds on Demand is usually hired to advocate either for or against policy matters, but in this particular case, the company is accused of making false accusations against an individual, hence the lawsuits allegation of defamation.
“If you’re presented with information that your message may be false or defamatory, do you have an obligation to not be the messenger?” Baldwin said. “That’s a key question for someone in this business. At what point do you have an obligation to verify the truth or veracity of the claims?”
The lawsuit filed by Bakala in federal court in South Carolina, also alleges violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a law that was originally intended to target organized crime syndicates.
Peter Baldwin, a former federal prosecutor said with RICO cases often being hard to prove, they can often be damaging to defendants, essentially leaving them labeled as organized criminals.
“If you’re a defendant facing racketeering charges, there is a reputational element,” Baldwin said. “That’s pretty serious. When people think of racketeering, they think of the mob.”
Baldwin reviewed Bakala’s complaint, and said while he couldn’t speculate on the case specifically, Bakala’s lawyers “have pled their case carefully.”
“I’ve seen less compelling RICO complaints,” he said.
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