Legal Spats Keep Multiplying

Sienna Broadcasting Corp., formerly known as Golf Entertainment Inc., produces more litigation than television programming.

The firm or its executives are embroiled in at least six ongoing legal battles. Also Melvin Robinson, trustee of the penny stock company’s closely aligned Genesis Trust, on Feb. 25 filed a $12 million libel suit in Washington County Circuit Court against Arkansas Business Publishing Group, owner of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal and Arkansas Business, and three of its employees.

He claims that 25 articles written between August and January about Golf/Sienna and its business dealings either libeled or defamed him or were “designed to further the prior libels” of him. He was mentioned in five of the articles.

ABPG has until April 4 to respond to the suit and intends to defend it vigorously, said President and Publisher Jeff Hankins.

“We knew all along that the individuals involved with Golf Entertainment were litigious, but we felt and still feel that it was our duty to inform the investing public of the irregularities in their operation,” Hankins said.

Genesis even filed a lawsuit against Golf/Sienna (see story, p. 1).

Jim Bolt, Golf/Sienna’s chief operating officer, and John Dodge, the firm’s vice president and general counsel, have during the last year been the plaintiffs or counsel in lawsuits against the Arkansas Securities Department, the company’s former landlords, a group of “John Doe” Internet message board posters, former Benton County Sheriff Andy Lee and other elected officials, and ex-business associates such as retired Air Force Lt. Col. F. Joe Hart of Pea Ridge.

Each of the cases, being litigated in a variety of venues, involves so many motions and countersuits that even a synopsis of each would require many column-inches of type. The Business Journal has amassed nearly 2,000 pages of documents related to Golf/Sienna and the Genesis Trust, the vast majority of which are legal pleadings. All of the matters await rulings or additional pleadings or answers.

The suit against a group of alleged “stock bashers,” who posted derogatory remarks about the firm on the “Raging Bull” message board, was previously filed as a RICO suit. But in March the racketeering allegations were dropped and it was refiled as what appears to be a securities fraud suit.

Golf/Sienna has alleged that the Arkansas Securities Department tried to manipulate its stock price. And Jeffrey Wood, editor of the Business Journal, has been added to a lengthy list of defendants but has never been served with the suit.

Hankins has denied the suggestion any ABPG employee has engaged in stock manipulation or fraud.

“When you’re reporting on a publicly traded company that sues state securities regulators, you know that anything can happen,” Hankins said.