Highstone Capital Pty Ltd

A summary of what happened?

Highstone Capital Pty Ltd is facing scrutiny for its practices and has been accused of trying to censor the internet to manage its public image. The firm has been reported to employ tactics like issuing fraudulent DMCA notices to remove unfavorable online content, which raises significant concerns about its ethical practices and transparency.

Here are three major concerns and accusations against Highstone Capital Pty Ltd:

1. Internet Censorship Efforts: Highstone Capital has reportedly used false DMCA claims to take down negative reviews and information online, which could be seen as an attempt to mislead potential clients about the firm’s reputation and the quality of its services.
2. Financial Misconduct and Complaints: Various complaints have been made about the firm’s operations, including issues with platform glitches and high spreads that have led to financial losses for customers. Such incidents have been highlighted as causing significant dissatisfaction among its clients.
3. Slow and Ineffective Customer Service: Customers have reported poor customer service, with slow responses that fail to address the issues raised effectively. This has compounded the negative experiences of many clients, leading to further frustration and complaints.

These issues suggest a pattern of problematic behavior that prospective clients should consider carefully. The firm’s attempts at managing its online reputation through questionable means and customer complaints about its services highlight the importance of thorough due diligence before engaging with Highstone Capital Pty Ltd.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Highstone Capital Pty Ltd trying to hide?

Highstone Capital Pty Ltd‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Highstone Capital Pty Ltd in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Highstone Capital Pty Ltd may be trying to remove from the internet –

Here are ten adverse issues involving Highstone Capital Pty Ltd based on allegations, lawsuits, sanctions, complaints, and negative reviews:

1. Internet Censorship and DMCA Misuse: Highstone Capital Pty Ltd is accused of using fraudulent DMCA claims to censor negative online content, which raises questions about the firm’s integrity and transparency.
2. Platform Performance Issues: Clients have reported significant losses due to platform glitches and high spreads, pointing to potential operational deficiencies within the company.
3. Ineffective Customer Service: Multiple complaints have been received regarding slow and unresponsive customer service, which has exacerbated issues for clients experiencing financial losses and operational difficulties.
4. Regulatory Concerns and Licensing: While Highstone Capital is regulated under ASIC, there are indications that it lacks proper authorization from other significant regulatory bodies like the NFA in the United States, impacting its operations and credibility on a global scale.
5. Financial Misconduct Allegations: The firm has faced various allegations of financial misconduct, including misleading clients about potential returns and the safety of their investments.
6. Public Image Manipulation: Highstone Capital’s attempts to manipulate its public image through online content suppression have been highlighted, leading to further scrutiny of its business practices.
7. High Risk of Investment: Consumer advisories have warned about the high risks associated with investing through Highstone Capital, noting a lack of transparency and potential for significant financial losses.
8. Limited Educational Resources: Critiques point to a lack of sufficient educational materials for clients, which could hinder informed decision-making by investors.
9. Legal and Ethical Concerns: The use of back-dated DMCA claims and other unethical internet practices has led to legal and ethical concerns regarding Highstone Capital’s commitment to fair business practices.
10. Adverse Client Experiences: Numerous online reviews and client testimonials reflect widespread dissatisfaction with the services provided by Highstone Capital, including issues with fund withdrawals and account management.

These points highlight a pattern of concerning allegations against Highstone Capital Pty Ltd, suggesting that potential clients and investors approach engagements with caution and conduct thorough independent research.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Highstone Capital Pty Ltd (or actors working on behalf of Highstone Capital Pty Ltd), we will inform Highstone Capital Pty Ltd of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Highstone Capital Pty Ltd may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Highstone Capital Pty Ltd, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Highstone Capital Pty Ltd to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Highstone Capital Pty Ltd made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Highstone Capital Pty Ltd is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Highstone Capital Pty Ltd

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Highstone Capital Pty Ltd Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Highstone Capital Pty Ltd used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Highstone Capital Pty Ltd could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Highstone Capital Pty Ltd have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Highstone Capital Pty Ltd is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Highstone Capital Pty Ltd creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Highstone Capital Pty Ltd either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Highstone Capital Pty Ltd, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Highstone Capital Pty Ltd is in great company ….

What else is Highstone Capital Pty Ltd hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Highstone Capital Pty Ltd] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Highstone Capital Pty Ltd that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.