Andre Stephens advised to apologise or face lawsuit

Popular vlogger Andre Stephens has been advised to apologise and remove allegedly defamatory posts concerning investment banker Ryan Strachan and the fraud-hit brokerage firm Stocks and Securities Limited (SSL), or face a lawsuit. 

He was given three days to fulfil the demands. 

Strachan has retained the law firm of Trevor Cuff and Alexander Shaw which wrote to Stephens alleging "gravely defamatory" videos and images published through his social media accounts on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. 

Stephens said he received the letter dated March 3 on Tuesday and "my attorneys will be reviewing and we'll be taking it from there". 

"Free speech will never be silenced," he said in a YouTube broadcast Tuesday night in reference to a letter. Stephens hosts daily commentary on current affairs issues in Jamaica on his nearly seven-month-old YouTube channel which has over 71, 000 subscribers and almost 10 million views. 

Citing postings on February 5, 7 and 18, attorney Trevor Cuff said Stephens "maliciously besmirched" the reputation of his client who is an "eminent and highly respected senior member of his profession". 

"You have intentionally and maliciously besmirched our client's reputation by implying that he was involved in a conspiracy to commit murder and fraud in matters that are currently the subject of court proceedings and high-level investigation," said the attorney.

"It is hard to imagine a more damaging series of libels of our client which are calculated to cause him serious and lasting damage both in his public and private life reflecting as they do on his integrity, honesty, his professional competence and his motives," Cuff wrote.

Strachan is currently the Vice-President of Investor Relations at GK Capital, the investment and advisory subsidiary of food and financial services company Grace Kennedy Limited.

Cuff told Stephens to "cease and desist" from making false and malicious statements about Strachan; to provide a "prominent, full and unqualified" apology in terms dictated by the law firm and to remove the allegedly offending social media posts. 

The law firm said Stephens is also to pay for Strachan's legal costs. 

Cuff said if the demands are not met, the firm has been instructed to file a lawsuit to recover damages and aggravated damages. 

Strachan has directed queries to the law firm which said the time starts to run from Tuesday when Stephens was served with the pre-litigation letter. 

In January, Strachan confirmed that he joined SSL as a wealth adviser in September 2011 and later supervised Jean-Ann Panton, the former wealth adviser accused in the SSL fraud, for one year.

Strachan said he left in August 2015.

But Strachan said he had no reason to question the former employee's actions in managing an account held by sports legend Usain Bolt's holding company WellJen. But he noted that audit trails, for which he was not responsible, may have picked things up.

“I was never made aware of any concerns, so I can't speak to that because that was never at my level of authority,” he said.

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