BrewDog’s James Watt conned out of GBP 100,000 in online smear plot
United Kingdom | BrewDog’s CEO was subjected to a vicious online smear campaign, which saw him scammed out of some USD 108,000 in Bitcoin by an ex-lover, The Sun, a newspaper, reported on 27 September.
Emili Ziem, 29, had set up fake social media pages spreading lies about Mr Watt, 40, and then conned him into paying GBP 25,000 a time to unmask the “trolls”.
At Edinburgh’s Court of Session, Lord Brailsford ruled in Mr Watt’s favour and ordered Ms Ziem to repay him the money, plus GBP 500,000 in expenses.
Ms Ziem set up her scam at a time when BrewDog was embroiled in a scandal, after more than 100 former and current employees had accused Mr Watt and his firm in an open letter of fostering a toxic workplace culture, amongst other things.
Ex-girlfriend turned internet troll
When Mr Watt dragged Ms Ziem to court in May this year, many observers thought that Mr Watt was a tad paranoid. But they now stand corrected – as in the old adage that “you don’t need to be paranoid to believe they are after you”.
As The Sun has the story, Mr Watt and Ms Ziem first had contact in 2020 on Instagram and met on several occasions. Then, in 2021, DMs (direct messages) began to arrive, accusing Mr Watt of having “misled” women. Some of the allegations even accused him of criminality.
At first, Mr Watt ignored the messages. But later Ms Ziem called him to say she had met one of his ex-lovers at a party. The woman allegedly told Ms Ziem that a group of women were conspiring to “bring down” Mr Watt.
What a scam
Ms Ziem promised that she would try to find out who was responsible for the DMs. Later she offered to identify the trolls for GBP 25,000 each.
But after paying four times, Mr Watt grew suspicious and hired a private detective who exposed Ms Ziem as being behind the accounts.
According to The Sun, Mr Watt paid out huge fees – some GBP 513,000 (USD 554,000) – to get to the bottom of the affair. The private detective charged GBP 236,000 for his work, while other forensics work came to GBP 105,000. Court fees to confirm the identity of Ms Ziem, who now lives in Norway, totalled GBP 172,000.
On 2 September, a judgement was issued by Lord Brailsford, which ruled in Mr Watt’s favour. It stated that Ms Ziem must transfer the Bitcoin back to Mr Watt, who has promised to give it to charity.
