OTR accuses The Civic Partnership of using fake identities in social media smear campaign

OTR claims a public relations firm set up fake social media profiles sharing “stories and nightmares” of working for the fuel chain as it faced a multimillion-dollar class action.

From left: Former executive at The Civic Partnership David Lau, Peregrine Corporation’s Sam Shahin and The Civic Partnership managing partner Jason Aldworth.

Fuel and convenience giant OTR is suing an influential public relations and lobbying firm over claims one of its senior executives set up fake social media identities to smear the company while it was defending a multimillion-dollar underpayment class action.

OTR, the company established by the Shahin family’s Peregrine Corporation and acquired by fuel giant Viva Energy for $1.2bn earlier this year, has launched Federal Court proceedings against The Civic Partnership, accusing the firm of running a campaign designed to damage the company’s reputation in the wake of a class action that alleged OTR underpaid hundreds of staff over several years.

A $5.8m settlement of the class action was reached in August 2022.

In court documents, OTR says The Civic Partnership and David Lau, one of its senior executives at the time, were acting on behalf of clients whose identities remain secret but could be revealed over the course of a potential trial.

Lau, a former Liberal Party figure, is not a party to the proceedings.

OTR claims that in February 2021, Mr Lau set up a Facebook Group – “OTR Survivors” – that included posts purporting to be from disgruntled former employees about their negative experiences working in OTR stores.

Aliases were created by Mr Lau, according to OTR’s statement of claim, appearing to be aggrieved former employees and victims of misconduct by OTR, but in fact were completely fabricated identities created to promote the interests of The Civic Partnership’s clients.

Several posts to the group are detailed in court documents, including one from a “Jack Musk” on February 11 in 2021, stating: “This is a page where we can share our stories, nightmares and experiences of OTR Shahin Enterprises and the Peregrine Corporation. This page will serve as a central point of information and will hopefully be a support for all those who have suffered under their unscrupulous behaviour and wage theft.”

The statement of claim says that was followed by a post from another alias, “Sean Cook”, on February 21 in 2021: “I’m so glad I’ve found this page. I’ve been feeling so along (sic) with the whole sage (sic). Glad to find a community where I can get more info. I also found this amazing website which has everything I wanted to find out!”

An “OTR Victims Website” was set up by Mr Lau under the “Jack Musk” alias, according to the statement of claim, inviting readers to sign a Change.org petition titled “Boycott On The Run” and created by another fake identity – “Joey Wong” – purporting to be a former OTR employee.

The website invited readers to make a complaint about the so called “wage theft scandal”, and provided information and assistance to sign up to the underpayment class action brought against OTR in May 2020.

OTR claims one post uploaded to the website suggested suppliers and associated brands would be “horrified to know that their stores are being run by alleged flagrant wage thieves”, while another stated that “OTR is owned by the Shahin family. As migrants, they seem unfamiliar with the rule of law and proper business etiquette in Australia”.

Mr Lau is also accused of having posted content on X, previously known as Twitter, using several fake profiles, and using the hashtag #Shahinwagetheft.

David Lau with former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The Civic Partnership managing partner Jason Aldworth, left, with colleague, Civic Data managing partner Chris Brinkworth.

The website and social media profiles and posts detailed in OTR’s statement of claim have been removed.

However the company claims none of the aliases created by Mr Lau had ever been employees of the company, and argues the scheme amounted to misleading and deceptive conduct that damaged the reputation of the company.

It is seeking damages, interest and costs.

“Having regard to the nature of the respondent’s conduct and that of the respondent’s client or clients in engaging the respondent to conduct the campaign referred to above, the applicants reasonably apprehend that a similar campaign may be pursued against it in future,” OTR says in its claim.

Mr Lau left The Civic Partnership in April 2023, four months after he resigned from the Liberal Party, following an admission that he used the fake identity – “Sean Cook” – in a bid to shut down reporting of Victorian state MP Renee Heath’s ties to her father Brian’s controversial City Builders Church.

Mr Lau – a former Liberal administrative committee member – used the alias to nastily attack journalists while supporting the preselection of Ms Heath, his one-time partner, in the lead up to the 2022 Victorian election.

OTR claims the social media campaign was just one element of a broader scheme to take down the company while it was defending the underpayment class action.

OTR says that in one instance, Mr Lau created an email address – [e-mail] – to distribute an inflammatory letter to a former chief executive of fruit and food processor SPC Global, which had earlier appointed Peregrine director Charlie Shahin as a board member following a capital raise led by Mr Shahin’s family office and Australian Food Super.

Sam Shahin, Viva Energy managing director Scott Wyatt, Yasser Shahin and Charlie Shahin. Picture: Supplied.

The letter, sent to then SPC boss Robert Giles as well as representatives from food and retail unions including the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union, stated that OTR had engaged in “some of the worst wage theft ever seen in Australia”, and called on Australian Food Super and the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union to divest from SPC or take necessary steps “to remove Peregrine” from the leadership of SPC and disassociate themselves from Peregrine Corporation.

In its defence filed with the court, The Civic Partnership admits that aliases were created by Mr Lau as part of a social media campaign “in relation to the OTR Business”, but denies the campaign was “designed to damage the Applicants’ business and reputation”.

It claims the reputation of OTR had already been damaged by widely publicised allegations of wage theft, judicial findings of wage underpayments, the multimillion settlement payout, and OTR’s 2018 appointment of former chief executive Warren Wilmot, who had been embroiled in an underpayment scandal while CEO at rival 7-Eleven.

The firm argues that the email sent by [e-mail] “had no capacity, or no material capacity, to harm the business reputation of the Applicants”.

It also says there was no obligation for it to disclose that the OTR Facebook page created by Mr Lau had not been created by genuinely aggrieved former employees, or that social media posts were not posts made by genuine members of the community.

In a statement provided to The Australian, legal representatives for The Civic Partnership said: “The statement of claim makes numerous unsubstantiated claims that will be defended. As this matter is before the courts we will not be making any further comment.”

OTR declined to comment on the matter, which has been set down for mediation on June 25 ahead of a case management hearing on July 2.

Mr Lau did not respond to requests for comment.