In November of 2013 Gorman would send out what he claims was an innocuous tweet about competition, which at the time Gorman did not know who John Monarch was and had never heard of Monarch’s company Direct Outbound.
It appears that Monarch, whom admits to have read Gorman’s blog and twitter account in the past, mistakingly believed the tweet was directed at him:
One week later, John Monarch, whom is a former band player at Clemson and a self-proclaimed diehard Clemson fan, had some harsh words for Gorman on Twitter after Gorman tweet’s about the Seminoles.
Gorman claims that Monarch threatened him in a barrage of tweets, claiming that Gorman needs to “watch his back.” Monarch admits to deleting his tweets at Gorman thereafter, and admits to having some harsh words with Gorman, whom he had never spoken to or met prior. Monarch denies that his words constituted threats.
Then, less than 2 weeks later on 12-10-13, Gorman coincidentally received a blackmail notice demanding $500,000 in cryptocurrency or else the cryptocurrency blackmailer claimed he would attack Gorman’s wife, children, company, and colleagues:
Gorman did not pay the $500,000 in cryptocurrency. Instead, Gorman hired the services of BlankRome and Kroll, which the lawsuit alleges helped him track down Steinborn and Monarch.
