Dawn J. Bennett, a former financial advisor who has been barred from the financial industry by the Securities and Exchange Commission, is suing Google for $8 million for defamation of character and loss of business.
Bennett, who was barred from the industry in July for repeatedly exaggerating the amount of clients’ assets she and her firm, Bennett Group Financial Services, managed, filed suit against Google Nov. 16 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., for refusing to take down a blog that she says cost her business.
Bennett is the principal owner and CEO of DJ Bennett Holdings LLC, a sportswear company. Scott Pierson, a marketing and website designer, did some work for the clothing line, before their relationship deteriorated. Pierson, who also is a blogger, posted a blog on Google that said, among other things, that Bennett did not pay her employees or contractors.
In the blog Pierson said Bennett owes thousands and thousands of dollars to people and he urged people not to patronize the sportswear company.
In the suit, Bennett says her attorney asked Google repeatedly to remove the blog because of its misrepresentations but that Google continue to maintain it in a way that gave it the widest circulation possible. The accusations hurt her personal and business reputation and cost her the business of existing and future customers, the suit says.
The suit asks for $3 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
The SEC in July ordered Bennett and her financial services company to pay $4 million in fees and penalties for repeatedly stating on her radio show and elsewhere that she managed up to $1.5 billion in assets when she actually managed much less. Bennett and her company were also barred from the financial industry.