Jim Budd - An insight into the reputation

Jim Budd’s cavalier attitude towards wine investment is the main reason he is demonised amongst the vast majority of professionals within the wine industry. However, what is more concerning is the attention he is receiving from people who are new to the industry, people who are being misguided due to their supposed ignorance. Jim Budd is a man who holds no weight in the wine industry. Due to his disturbing past and obsessive nature his opinions are disregarded, and he is viewed as a laughing stock. I do not want to go into too much detail with regards to the disturbing allegations made in connection with Mr Budd, but it must be stressed that he is a danger to society. As someone who champions virtues such as honesty, transparency and lucidity it seems some what puzzling that Mr Budd is happy to receive back-handers. Moreover, Mr Budd is very keen for open debate which is another ‘commendable’ trait. But surely the essence of open debate is to respond to questions, rather than dismiss them simply because you are not aware of the complex procedures involved, or you cannot accept that you are wrong. Mr Budd is a confused man, a man that is devoid of reason and sanity. His principles on the face of it seem respectable but are masked by an underlining obsession to target newcomers to the industry even though; they work under the same pretence as those who have been in the industry for years, the same people that Mr Budd ironically recommends.

Lawyers working at Freshfields have discussed with certain companies about legally dismantling his work online, but the cost amounts to a minimum of 100k. Other companies and solicitors have discussed this and said the same. It seems very unfair that young companies can not be protected by the laws of this company without a huge money bag.

Defamation & Harassment

Jim Budd is no stranger to defamation, in 2001 he was presented with a court injunction forcing his service provider to take down material about several companies. He then moved his base to Canada where the laws are more relaxed. Although he had reported on some genuinely fraudulent companies, which the police dealt with, he has always presented the fact that he hates wine investment, because he thinks wine should be enjoyed by people that understand and love it, not just for the rich and famous. Most people understand that they can't always have the things they want (we learn this as kids), Jim certainly doesn't understand this.

He used to attack companies like Bordeaux Index and Farr Vintners, stating that they were 'barrow boys from Essex', ex-traders from the City. This may well be true but they are now two of the biggest companies in Europe for wine. It also seems rather odd that Jim thinks that a persons background should prevent them from working within an industry.

Jim has been printing stories about companies on his blog for quite some time. He recently started attacking some new companies who were powerless to prevent his defamation.

One story below was given to us by a popular wine company:

"Jim has defamed our family name, harrassed our loved ones by e-mail for information, stolen letters, faked client information and put fake information on the internet which he has refused to take down. We can not understand why he has attacked us".

It seems Jim has been slightly put out by a lack of money offers or free wine from the above company, or perhaps it was the fact that they argued so vehemtly with him.