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Russ Whitney drops suit against Mazu.com owner Matt Gagnon

Russ Whitney sued Matt Gagnon a couple of years ago. Gagnon runs Mazu.com which reportedly rates business opportunities. Some of Whitney’s training programs are business opportunities.
Whitney did not like what Mazu said about him. He sued. Mazu settled out of court promising not to criticize Whitney. Not long thereafter, Whitney sued Gagnon again. Gagnon and his lawyer called me to discuss the subject of litigating against Whitney in general. This time, Gagnon decided to stand and fight.
The court dismissed Gagnon’s counterclaims against Whitney.
I was supposed to testify at the Whitney v. Gagnon trial in Fort Myers around April 5, 2005.
Whitney’s first attempt to drop the suit
On March 4, 2005, Whitney filed a motion to drop the suit. The Fort Myers federal court judge said he would grant the motion, but would require Whitney to immediately pay Gagnon’s costs and would make Whitney pay Gagnon’s attorney fees for the second suit if he refiled it in the future. Whitney withdrew the motion to drop the suit.
Whitney giving a deposition
On March 31, 2005, Gagnon was to have his deposition taken by Whitney’s lawyers. On April 1, 2005, Whitney was to have his deposition taken by Gagnon’s lawyers. The trial was to start the following Monday, April 5, 2005.
In a deposition, you sit in a room with your lawyer and the opposing lawyer and often the opposing party. At the beginning, you are put under oath. There is some sort of recording—usually a court stenographer. In Fort Myers, the time limit is seven hours or pretty much a full day. We get to take two depositions because Whitney like to list himself as an individual as well as Whitney Information Network, Inc. as plaintiffs. For example, Whitney Information Network, Inc. and Russ Whitney v. Matt Gagnon, Whitney Information Network, Inc. and Russ Whitney v. John T. Reed. That roughly doubles the amount of discovery Whitney has to provide.
Drops the suit again
But on March 25, 2005, Whitney again filed a motion to drop the suit. Reminded of the conditions previously set by the judge, this time they said that would be OK. In other words, one week before he was to be deposed under oath, Whitney dropped the suit. I lost my “all-expenses-paid trip” to Fort Myers, FL.
Todd Dotson
A couple of years ago, Whitney was being sued by Todd Dotson, one of his former top associates. When Dotson scheduled Whitney’s deposition, Whitney settled the suit.
He has since sued Dotson again. Apparently settling with Whitney means little more than a temporary cessation of litigation. Dotson is supposed to take Whitney’s deposition the last week of April, 2005. I will be curious to hear how that goes.
It got postponed. I am beginning to get the impression that Russ Whitney has sworn off giving depositions. One reason might be that because of my Web site, too many attorney are now asking too many questions that he does not wish to answer under oath.
If Russ Whitney has, indeed, sworn off giving depositions, all his law suits are bluffs. You cannot sue someone if you refuse to give depositions. Refusal to give a deposition would typically result in a default judgment in favor of the opposing party and a court order that Whitney has to pay the expenses of the other party. It could also result in sanctions or punishment against Russ Whitney and/or his lawyers for filing a suit they had no intention of going to trial on.
My deposition of Whitney
I tried to take Whitney’s deposition the same week as Dotson, but his lawyers kept refusing to agree to the various schedules I proposed. So I filed a motion with the court—same court as Gagnon and Dotson—asking the judge to schedule the depositions and mediation because the parties could not agree.
There are a whole bunch of motions pending. The Fort Myers federal Court is going to have a hearing on May 13, 2005 to decide them all. I have to attend in person, which will be the first time I have been to Florida since Whitney started suing me.
I know that Russ Whitney has given some depositions in the past. I have not heard of any lately. I would like to collect any that he has done. They should be a great resource for those of us who are in litigation with him.
John T. Reed
Copyright 2005 by John T. Reed
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CONSUMER WARNING NOTICE: I recently saw Russ Whitney on a late night TV infomercial and then attended one of his "free" seminars. Unfortunately I believed all of their LIES and FRAUDULENT CLAIMS and I paid thousands of dollars to go to his "training camps". Needless to say I was clearly ripped off, cheated and lied to by Russ Whitney and his employees (band of thieves). My mistake was not searching the Internet to find out more about Russ Whitney and his company's HORRIBLE reputation for fraud, deception and illegal activities. Had I searched online I would have found out about THOUSANDS of customers being cheated, HUNDREDS of investigations by the Attorney General into the fraud of Russ Whitney and his company's, and that Russ Whitney himself is a CONVICTED VIOLENT FELON and spent years in PRISON. I saved the cached pages from the major search engines of the John Reed lawsuit with Russell Whitney and the TRUTH and FACTS that Reed discovered during his investigation of Whitney. I am posting this information on real estate discussion boards so other people do NOT get cheated and ripped off like I did.