Alexander Arthur : "This statement needs to be removed. I don't know why it's there."
The lawsuit that Winter Garden gym owner Alexander Arthur filed in Ninth Circuit Court, accusing three content creators of defaming him and his business, Gymnastics USA, falsely claims that he has no "business or financial ties" to his brother Austin Arthur's campaign for county commission.
The brothers share an office and founded Gymnastics USA together in 2014, although Alexander Arthur has been the sole proprietor since 2021.
The lawsuit alleges that Winter Garden residents, husband and wife, Jacob Malherbe and Roseanna Malherbe, directed Stephen J. Dibert, most recently of Palm Beach County, to create the RealAustinArthur.com site, a snide, tabloid-style site that publishes negative news about Austin Arthur's run to unseat District 1 County Commissioner Nicole Wilson. Although largely focused on the candidate, some posts have mentioned Alexander Arthur and Gymnastics USA, such as, "Has your child been hurt at Gymnastics USA?" and "Gymnastics USA is busted in Covid billing scandal."
Alexander Arthur lists several reasons in the lawsuit paperwork that the defamatory statements posted on RealAustinArthur.com are false, including that “plaintiffs have not had business or financial ties to the election campaign.”
That statement is untrue.
Campaign records show that Alexander Arthur made donations as an individual and in the name of Gymnastics USA to his brother’s campaign and to his political action committee, Citizens for Common Sense Solutions.
Alexander Arthur donated $5,000 to Citizens for Common Sense Solutions on Sept. 21, 2023.
The following week, on Feb. 28, 2023, Arthur made a $1,000 individual donation — the most allowed by law — directly to his brother’s campaign and another $1,000 donation to the campaign through Gymnastics USA.
Citizens for Common Sense Solutions also made a payment to “Zander Arthur” on August 27, 2024, in the amount of $16,049.56 labeled “Reimbursement-Facebook.”
Alexander Arthur sounded baffled when VoxPopuli asked about the statement in the lawsuit that he had no business or financial ties to his brother’s election campaign.
“I'm not sure where that was found … where I said … I never said that,” Arthur said last week by phone. “I'm not sure if there's some wording in a document that my lawyer created that says something like that. And I'm trying to look through [the lawsuit] right now as we're speaking. But I've never said that Gymnastics USA didn't donate or anything like that to my brother's campaign. "
VoxPopuli directed Arthur to the line in the lawsuit.
“I have to ask my lawyer why that was written," Arthur said. "I didn’t see that originally when this document was sent out. And I'm not sure if the lawyer meant something else … But of course, we donate to the campaign, and everything gets reported, so it'd be a ridiculous thing to lie about because it's in the report.”
For the record, Arthur said, he is very involved in his brother's campaign for county commission.
"I've donated to my brother's campaign personally, my wife and I, my business has donated to the campaign. My business has donated to the PAC. I've financially paid for a bunch of the Facebook ads and got reimbursed by the PAC. I'm involved with the campaign entirely.
"So this [statement] needs to be removed or clarified or something," he said. "It's something that I didn't notice, and it wouldn't make any sense for me at all to put that in there. I hope this is not just some type of gotcha, but, yeah. I don't know why that's in there.”
