A Sydney movie maker says that he is millions of dollars out of pocket after he was defamed on the forums of Australian community website zGeek.com.

Smith had been contracted by a group of Eastern European investors to produce a film called Merchant Of Death, a documentary about the life and times of alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is being held in Thailand waiting for the outcome of an extradition request from the US.

The deal was axed after the overseas party that contracted Smith to make the film allegedly stumbled across the comments on the zGeek forum and decided Smith's reputation was too damaged. Smith is suing Tony Brisciani, owner of zGeek, in the Supreme Court for $42.5 million plus an amount for damage to his reputation. He is also suing the Filmnet message board over similar defamation claims, while Smith's partner, Jonathan Nolan, is also separately suing both zGeek and Filmnet.

Bout was the inspiration behind Nicolas Cage's character in the 2005 film Lord of War. He stands accused of supplying weapons to several nations, rebel groups, the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda. The film Smith was making was basically saying that Bout was arrested on trumped up charges.

Smith was targeted by trolls when he entered into a discussion on the zGeek site about the book The Third Truth, which claims the destruction of the World Trade Centre towers in New York was the result of nuclear weapons installed by Israeli intelligence service Mossad. The forum went for him claiming he was connected with a book publisher.

One user said Smith's company, Myrmidon Enterprises, and his film, Merchant Of Death, did not exist and that Smith was a "nutcase scam artist" who has made "false job postings".

Smith requested an apology and asked that the defamatory material be removed. Brisciani claimed that he was not liable because he was only asked to remove the material once legal action had commenced. He did remove the posts when asked.