As part of a six-month old lawsuit against the company, Holtec International, Jupiter, Fla., recently accused a former employee of defamation over allegedly false language that appeared in a publicity campaign and news stories.
The Superior Court of New Jersey in Camden County planned to decide on Jan. 19 whether to allow the defamation claim to proceed. Holtec asked leave to file a claim on Dec. 20.
It is the latest twist in the suit that Kevin O’Rourke, Holtec’s former chief financial officer, brought against the company in June. O’Rourke alleges that Holtec overstated the value of its business, including the likely profitability of its now-stalled interim waste storage business in New Mexico, to woo Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co. of Seoul, South Korea, as an investor.
Holtec’s claim centers on the words that O’Rourke’s lawyers, and media including New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press newspaper, used in July to describe O’Rourke’s accusations.
In his lawsuit, O’Rourke said that Holtec wanted him to sign off on a document that he identified in court filings as a “draft prospectus.” Intended for Hyundai’s review, this document included information that O’Rourke said was false or misleading. After he refused to sign the document, O’Rourke said, Holtec fired him.
Holtec disputes O’Rourke’s characterization of the allegedly misleading document as a prospectus, but the company, which does business in the Philadelphia suburb of Camden, N.J., on the Delaware River, said the Press and O’Rourke’s attorneys crossed a legal line when they called the document Holtec’s “financial statements.”
Holtec says its financial statements are not only completely separate from the document at the center of O’Rourke’s lawsuit, but that O’Rourke certified the company’s financial statements himself in August 2022.
It is all part of O’Rourke’s “scheme to harm Holtec…with respect to lenders, governmental regulators and clients,” the company wrote in its Dec. 20 court filing.
The Press changed the wording of its story, as did Yahoo! News, which republished the Press’ story, Holtec said in its Dec. 20 filing.
But as of Tuesday, the language to which Holtec objects still appeared in a statement posted online by O’Rourke’s law firm, Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins of Elizabeth, N.J.
