The trial court dismissed a lawsuit filed by appellants Hindu Temple and Community Center of the High Desert, Inc. “Hindu Temple” and Annamalai Annamalai against appellees Sandhya J. Shastri, Senthil Kumar Kandasamy, and Valmikinathan P. Raghunathan, after concluding that both the lawsuit and accompanying verifications violated OCGA § 9-11-11.1, Georgia’s anti-SLAPP “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation” statute.1 In addition to dismissing the lawsuit, the trial court ordered that appellants pay appellees’ attorney fees and expenses pursuant to OCGA § § 9-11-11.1b and 9-15-14 a, b. Appellants argue that the trial court erred in ruling that the lawsuit was governed by OCGA § 9-11-11.1 and that their verifications were false, and further erred in calculating the amount of attorney fees owed. We disagree and affirm. The undisputed evidence shows that in 2008, the Gwinnett County Police Department began receiving numerous complaints from individuals throughout the country against the Hindu Temple and Annamalai the Temple’s founder, alleging that they were victims of credit-card fraud. Specifically, the victims claimed that they contacted the Hindu Temple in order to purchase “religious services,” only to later discover that their credit cards had been charged up to ten times more than the agreed-upon amount. There were also reports that Annamalai had been misrepresenting himself to these purchasers of religious services as a medical doctor.
During the ensuing investigation, the investigator assigned to manage the flood of complaints received statements from Shastri and Kandasamy. Specifically, Shastri reported that her grandmother contacted the Hindu Temple to purchase religious services by Annamalai, who claimed to be doctor or psychologist, and that thereafter multiple unauthorized charges were run on her credit card.2 Similarly, Kandasamy reported that he had also been a victim of credit-card fraud at the hands of the appellants, providing the investigator with a recorded conversation between himself and Annamalai, in which Annamalai held himself out to be a medical doctor.3 It is unclear from the record whether Raghunathan also reported to having been victimized by appellants’ alleged criminal conduct, but there is evidence that he referred Kandasamy to the investigator via email after Kandasamy reported the alleged fraud to his bank and other governmental authorities.4
