The New Jersey Supreme Court has denied a motion for appeal filed by the law firm representing the mystery Evolution accuser.
The New Jersey Supreme Court has denied a motion for appeal filed by the law firm representing the mystery Evolution accuser.
The court’s order, dated 11 April, denied Calcagni & Kanefsky’s (CK) request to appeal, dismissed as moot its motion to stay and vacated a Supreme Court temporary stay dated 20 March.
In a letter to CK’s counsel sent yesterday (16 April), Evolution’s attorneys wrote: “As such, we expect to receive the Court-ordered ‘full and complete’ responses by no later than 11:59 p.m. today.
“For avoidance of doubt, that means [CK] must provide ‘full and complete’ responses to Evolution’s five pending interrogatories, which obligation includes — but is not limited to — disclosing the identities of CK’s anonymous client and the entity that retained such anonymous client.”
Did CK already send the names to Evolution?
It is unknown whether CK has yet complied with the request, although it appears to have largely exhausted its legal options to escape the demand for discovery.
If CK did send the pending interrogatories, then it means Evolution now has the answer to one of the most tantalising mysteries in the US online gambling industry.
The publication of the mystery accuser’s 2021 report, which alleged Evolution was active in prohibited jurisdictions, resulted in $10bn in value being wipe from the live casino giant’s share price.
Evolution has consistently denied the charges, which it said are “inaccurate, false, defamatory and methodologically flawed.”
After suing CK for defamation in New Jersey Superior Court in 2021, a complicated legal spat over discovery ensued, with an Appellate Court eventually ruling whether or not to order the report’s authors and ultimate commissioner to be unveiled would depend on its “veracity”.
After years of legal wrangling, in February the court eventually ruled it indeed lacked veracity and ordered the report’s authors be unmasked.
This, Judge John Porto said, was influenced to a great extent by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement’s decision to close its investigation into Evolution after finding no evidence it “sanctioned, promoted, permitted, or otherwise materially benefitted from its content offered by operators in any market that the NJDGE considers a prohibited jurisdiction.”
In the aftermath of this, CK sought a stay from the Superior Court, which was denied, but successfully got one from the Supreme Court.
However, this stay has now also been removed after the Supreme Court tossed the law firm’s request to appeal.
What happens now?
It is still not clear whether the names will be publicly revealed once Evolution has them.
If the names are not published in court filings or via a public statement, it is possible they may only be revealed in an amended complaint or at trial, both of which could take months.
Alternatively, if CK chooses to settle, the names could be buried for ever.
There have been conflicting details published about the identity of the entity that ultimately commissioned the report.
NEXT.io sources, including one present at an internal investor meeting, have said the group was a major gaming supplier, which gels with previous Bloomberg reporting the author was an Evolution competitor.