FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 03/18/2014

NYSCEF DOC. NO. 1

INDEX NO. 152439/2014 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/18/2014

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK -----------------------------------------------------------------X ADAM R.ROSE, Index No. Petitioner, ---against--VERIFIED PETITION/ AFFIDAVIT OF ADAM R. ROSE IN SUPPORT OF ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE

YAHOO! INC. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, TUMBLR, INC., AUTOMATTIC, INC., and TWITTER, INC., Respondents. -----------------------------------------------------------------X STATE OF NEW YORK ) ) COUNTY OF NEW YORK )

ss:

I, ADAM R. ROSE, being duly sworn, deposes and says that the following is true under penalty of perjury: 1. I am the petitioner in the above-captioned proceeding and submit this

affidavit in support of the Order to Show Cause Compelling Disclosure of Identity, pursuant to CPLR 3102(c), for pre-action disclosure, and compelling Yahoo! Inc. and/or its wholly-owned subsidiary Tumblr.com (collectively referred to as Tumblr), Automattic, Inc., (Automattic) and Twitter, Inc. (Twitter) to disclose identifying information for the person or persons (hereinafter Bloggers) who posted several weblogs, which contained actionable, defamatory statements about me on websites under the operation and control of Tumblr, Automattic, and Twitter. 2. Because (1) I have demonstrably meritorious claims for defamation

against the anonymous blogger[s] and (2) the identifying information is material and 1

necessary to the framing of my complaint, I respectfully ask this Court to issue the requested order. 3. In or about January of 2013, I heard from an industry colleague that a blog

that had historically contained long, somewhat incomprehensible posts accusing dozens of people and entities connected to the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village (Stuy Town Property) sale1 with all sorts of wrongdoing, now contained some vicious, patently false and defamatory statements about me, personally. 4. In March of 2013, I googled my name and was directed to the website

http://tishmanspeyerfraud.tumblr.com/ containing a weblog (the Tumblr Blog) entitled Tishman Speyer Stuyvesant Town (NYC) Fraud. When I checked the Tumblr Blog recently, I saw four (4) entries within the last six (6) months, dated on or about March 11, 2014, March 2, 2014, February 3, 2014 and January 7, 20142, which are the corresponding dates that the Tumblr Blog entries were published in a permanent form on the Internet. Based on the context and subject matter of the postings, as well as fact that my full name and the name of my company, Rose Associates, are published on the Tumblr Blog, I know the contents are about me. A true and correct copy of the abovedescribed blog entries is attached hereto as Exhibit 1. 5. I was alarmed to see that the Tumblr Blog entries and the related

commentary were used to falsely describe me as a corrupt white collar criminal, to

I have never held any ownership interest in the Stuy Town Property, nor has my company, Rose Associates. After the previous owner, Tishman Speyer Properties, defaulted on its mortgage, CW Capital Asset Management LLC (CW Capital) took over control and hired Rose Associates to act as the property manager. 2 The Tumblr Blog entries are categorized by date according to the amount of time that has passed since they were posted, i.e., 1 month ago or 5 days ago, and do not state a specific date. Therefore, the dates stated above are approximate, based upon the information provided on the Tumblr Blog.

accuse me of participating in illegal, criminal activity, including an illegal tax fraud scheme, to falsely accuse me of being under criminal investigation by the federal authorities, and, perhaps the worst, of having a connection to child pornography. The statements and suggestions made on the Tumblr Blog entries are malicious, untrue and extremely damaging to my professional reputation. 6. For thirty (30) years, I have been involved in all aspects of the real estate

industry, including development, design, leasing, sales and management of high-rise apartment buildings. Statements falsely accusing me of such abhorrent criminal activity affect my reputation and desirability as a property developer and/or manager. 7. The individual entries on the Tumblr Blog speak for themselves. They are

so clearly aimed at casting me as a criminal racketeer (even claiming I was under indictment) accusing me of tax fraud and of concealing child pornography and are unwarranted, hurtful, embarrassing, potentially damaging to my reputation in the real estate industry and, significantly, they are flatly untrue. I have never been investigated, arrested, arraigned, indicted or charged with any criminal activity. 8. On or about August 1, 2013, I discovered another website,

http://tishmanspeyerfraud.wordpress.com/, (the Wordpress Blog) with one (1) entry dated July 3, 2013, which is the corresponding date that the blog entry was published in permanent form on the Internet. Based on the fact that my full name and the name of my business are both used on this blog, I know the contents are about me. A true and correct copy of the above-described blog entry is attached hereto as Exhibit 2. 9. The Wordpress Blog entry and the other posted commentary were used to

describe me as a Criminal Mischief Defendant[], to accuse me of illegal, criminal

activity, including felony criminal mischief, and felony destruction of someones property, real estate fraud and tax fraud and corruption. The statements and suggestions made on the Wordpress Blog entry are malicious and untrue. Again, these false statements describing me as a criminal and accusing me of such abhorrent criminal activity affect my reputation and desirability as a property developer and manager. 10. The entry on the Wordpress Blog is obviously written by the same person

who wrote the Tumblr Blog and is also clearly aimed at casting me as a criminal, accusing me of various felonies, fraud and corruption and is unwarranted, hurtful, embarrassing, potentially damaging to my reputation in the real estate industry and, significantly, flatly untrue. 11. In addition, at the web address https://twitter.com/StuyTownFraud/, I

discovered a Twitter account entitled TishmanSpeyerFraud, (the Twitter Account) using the name @StuyTownFraud where I saw three (3) entries, dated February 3, 2014, July 4, 2013 and September 2, 2013, which are the corresponding dates that the entries were published in a permanent form on the internet. Based on the subject matter and fact that my full name is published on this Twitter Account, I know the contents are about me. A true and correct copy of the above-described entries is attached hereto as Exhibit 3. The headline featured prominently in one posting is particularly galling and reveals the true malice of the author: BREAKING NEWS: What do Racketeering Defendant Adam Rose, Child Pornography and Disney all have in common? 12. Like the two blogs, the Twitter Account posts and related comments

repeat and rehash the same patently false claims of my illegal, criminal activity, including having a connection to child pornography, being a violent criminal, a racketeer, of 4