Barry Dean

Opposition leader Peter Dutton has questioned a costs agreement between refugee activist Shane Bazzi and his solicitors in a defamation dispute, raising the possibility that “sham bills” may have been provided to the court to assess the costs to which Bazzi is entitled for his successful appeal.

WA premier Mark McGowan has won the legal costs of running his defamation cross-claim against businessman Clive Palmer after a judge learned McGowan made a walk-away settlement offer in December last year.

A judge has questioned why solicitors representing Twitter personality Stock Swami published a media release about his “backstory” two days before trial in a defamation case brought by mining investor Tolga Kumova.

A judge overseeing a defamation case brought by Tolga Kumova against Twitter personality Stock Swami has said tweets the mining investor published which allegedly spruiked shares in which he invested were “clearly apt to mislead”.

Mining investor Tolga Kumova is “likely” to go after Twitter personality Stock Swami for contempt of court after he admitted he lied and withheld evidence in a defamation case, despite a judge saying there was “no smoking gun”.

Twitter personality Alan Davison, who runs the account Stock Swami, has admitted he misled lawyers for mining investor Tolga Kumova and deliberately failed to obey court orders for discovery in cross-examination during a defamation trial. 

The man behind the Stock Swami Twitter account is flying to Sydney for cross-examination after a judge halted a trial in mining investor Tolga Kumova’s defamation case, saying he had “no confidence whatsoever” the Twitter user complied with discovery obligations.

A judge has halted a defamation trial in a case brought by mining investor Tolga Kumova after saying he had “no confidence whatsoever” that the owner of Twitter account Stock Swami complied with discovery obligations.

Former Young Rich Lister Tolga Kumova sold $24 million worth of shares in mining company after publishing positive social media posts about its prospects, a court has heard in a defamation trial over allegations he engaged in insider trading and pumping and dumping. 

A judge has pulled up a law firm over a tweet it published about defamation proceedings brought by investor Tolga Kumova, telling a barrister during the trial Thursday to counsel his instructing solicitors about the “highly unsatisfactory” social media post.