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Dave Linhardt’s lawsuit against participants in anti-spam discussion group Nanae is part of an effort to prove Spamhaus does business in America, this newsletter has learned.

This would be a crucial development in the high-profile, international legal battle between the marketer and the anti-spam blacklisting group.

The chief executive of e360Insight was expected to re-file his lawsuit against the Nanae-group defendants in Illinois state court today.

Named in the complaint are Susan Wilson a.k.a. Susan Gunn, Rob Saecker a.k.a. Fudo, Rich Tietjens a.k.a. Morley Dotes, Tim Skirvin, a.k.a. Screwtape III, Mark James Ferguson and William Silverstein.

The defendants are well known for their participation in Nanae, a vocally anti-spam online discussion group. All of them live in the U.S., according to the complaint.

Linhardt’s lawsuit against the Nanae participants is part of his high-profile battle with U.K.-based anti-spam blacklisting concern Spamhaus. Linhardt sued Spamhaus last year claiming the organization wrongly listed his company as a spammer and caused much of e360’s outbound e-mail to be blocked.

“The individuals named have all posted alleged spam information about us on Nanae,” said Linhardt in an e-mail exchange with this newsletter. “These postings match precisely in time and content with Spamhaus SBL listings. We believe this indicates clear evidence that the individuals named are feeding information to Spamhaus, which has damaged our business. Therefore, it is our position that these individuals are responsible, as well, in this matter. Also, this evidence exposes part of Spamhaus’ US-based organization, which Spamhaus claims doesn’t exist.”

Linhardt had originally sued Nanae participants in federal court, but then said he learned one of the defendants lives in Illinois. As a result, he said, he had to re-file in state court. The new complaint—reportedly filed today in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois County Department, Chancery Division—is almost identical to the old one.

It claims the plaintiffs’ postings on the Internet have cause some of e360’s e-mail to be blocked as spam and, as a result, caused e360 to lose business. The complaint asks for a compensatory judgment of at least $50,000, punitive damages and an injunction barring the defendants from posting statements on the Internet saying e360 is a spammer.

Spamhaus maintains a list of what it deems to be sources of spam that an unknown number of e-mail administrators use to help them determine whether or not to block incoming e-mail as spam.

Linhardt won an $11.7 million default judgment against Spamhaus in September when representatives of Spamhaus failed to show up and defend themselves in court.

Spamhaus’ chief executive Steve Linford has refused to abide by the ruling, claiming the U.S. court has no jurisdiction over his U.K.-based organization. He has since retained legal counsel, however, in an effort to get the judgment overturned.

At the same time, Linhardt has made a series of maneuvers attempting to show Spamhaus has business interests in the U.S. and force it to abide by the ruling, the lawsuit against the Nanae participants being the latest.