(Bloomberg)—A feud between PulteGroup Inc.’s founding household and a prime govt on the homebuilder has spilled out in public with a lawsuit accusing the corporate’s incoming chief working officer of orchestrating a smear marketing campaign.

Invoice Pulte, finest recognized for utilizing his Twitter account to offer money to followers, alleged in a civil grievance filed Wednesday in Palm Seaside County, Florida, that newly named PulteGroup COO Brandon Jones has used a community of Twitter bots to harass and defame the household.

Pulte, 34, alleges that Jones appropriated the identification of a lifeless individual, impersonated a enterprise journalist and used Twitter to contact Detroit newspapers in service of his marketing campaign. In a single occasion, Pulte claims {that a} Twitter account managed by Jones insinuated {that a} totally different member of the family dedicated arson on the famed Oakland Hills golf course in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The lawsuit additionally accuses Jones of creating a false declare that Pulte manipulated his grandfather, the corporate’s founder.

PulteGroup was not named as a defendant within the lawsuit. Jones didn’t reply to efforts to achieve him by means of the corporate and LinkedIn.

“Having just lately been made conscious of sure social media exercise by an organization govt, we’re conducting an intensive investigation to find out the information and whether or not there was a violation of our firm’s requirements and insurance policies,” a spokesman for PulteGroup mentioned in an emailed assertion.

PulteGroup, the third-largest homebuilder within the US, has had a contentious relationship with its founding household previously. In 2016, Pulte’s grandfather – who based the corporate as a teen in 1950 – pushed for the elimination of then-Chief Govt Officer Richard Dugas, arguing that the chief’s aggressive land purchases had exacerbated the affect of an earlier housing market crash. The battle finally lured in famed activist investor Elliott Funding Administration.

Invoice Pulte joined the corporate’s board of administrators round that point. Pulte claims that he’s the one one of many founder’s descendants to obtain an inheritance, based on the lawsuit.

He opposed the promotion of Jones to COO in board conferences, based on the lawsuit. Pulte left the board function in 2020. Jones later obtained the promotion to COO, with the corporate saying in October that he could be elevated to the place in the beginning of subsequent 12 months following the retirement of one other govt.

Lately, Pulte has devoted himself to a pursuit he calls Twitter Philanthropy. Pulte, who has 3.2 million followers, usually sends money to individuals he meets on Twitter, generally earmarking the funds for family bills like lease, utility payments or dinner out. He and his Twitter viewers raised greater than $2.5 million for the household of a instructor killed within the college capturing in Uvalde, Texas, the lawsuit says.

On Tuesday, Pulte tweeted an announcement saying that his household had backed Elon Musk’s Twitter. He additionally retweeted a meme depicting Musk smiling in entrance of a freshly dug grave. The tombstone reads: “Bots.”

To contact the creator of this story: Patrick Clark in New York at [email protected]

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