Patriot Supply sues former CFO

SANDPOINT — A company that caters to the emergency preparedness movement is suing its former chief financial officer for allegedly posting disparaging comments about the company on various social media platforms.

Patriot Supply Inc. is suing Bonner County resident Steve Whetzel for breach of contract and is seeking a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order in 1st District Court to keep Whetzel from deriding the company, according to a lawsuit filed on Jan. 4. The company sells emergency survival foods, heirloom seeds, water filters and other survival essentials.

Patriot Supply, a Nevada company operated by Utah resident Matthew David Parker, and Whetzel parted ways in 2017 and entered into a settlement agreement memorializing the terms of Whetzel’s severance, which included a $250,000 “termination bonus.”

The agreement also released Patriot Supply from legal claims Whetzel may have made and prohibited him from denigrating the company or Parker, the civil complaint said.

Whetzel subsequently posted comments to a LinkedIn account that indicating that he was working on a book on how not to get betrayed by a friend and business owner and describes himself as a the former “right-hand man” of Parker, also known as Matt Redhawk, the suit alleges. Whetzel is further accused of posting derogatory comments on Twitter and Reddit, which referred to the company as “the great emergency preparedness scam” and claimed Parker had a criminal background.

The suit also alleges that Whetzel possessed the means to damage or destroy the company’s reputation through an electronic mailing list that belonged to Patriot Supply, court documents indicate.

Whetzel was served with a cease-and-desist letter in September, which initially slowed the negative remarks. However, they resumed and increased under new accounts on the social media platforms.

Whetzel, the suit said, deleted his LinkedIn account when he became aware that Patriot Supply knew of the disparaging comments.

Patriot Supply’s counsel, Sandpoint attorney Brent Featherston, said the LinkedIn comments were unmistakable violations of the non-disparagement clause.

“The addition posts, Twitter and Reddit accounts are simply evidence of your continued violations of the non-disparagement clause,” Featherston said in the cease-and-desist letter.

In an email reply to the letter, Whetzel denied making any disparaging remarks on LinkedIn and expressed shock that the company believed he was involved. He also asserts that he removed his LinkedIn account to stop Parker from harassing him.

“This is not of my doing and I have no power to remove anything that has been posted. I would appreciate it if Mr. Parker will adhere to our agreement and stop harassing me,” Whetzel wrote in the email.

The suit seeks damages in excess of $10,000.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.