Attorney General Ken Paxton recently filed a petition with the Harris County District Court alleging that Solvera, an online reputation management company, violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by abusing the legal system to deceive Harris County district court judges with its defamation lawsuits.

The lawsuit alleges that Solvera perpetuated a “reputation management” scheme by filing lawsuits it knew contained false information – including fictitious plaintiffs and defendants. As a result, nationwide consumers, Texas attorneys and judges, along with search engines such as Google were all duped.

“At every step in its so-called reputation management process, Solvera repeatedly employed false, deceptive and misleading practices,” Attorney General Paxton said. “My office will not allow Texas consumers, attorneys, and courts to be confused and deceived by this unlawful behavior.”

Through its deceptive use of the legal process, Solvera was successful in deleting a number of potentially legitimate comments posted in the review section of websites, eliminating the feedback from search engine results without due process.