Racist e-mail via Obama site: suit

'TELL A FRIEND' | Firm says notes claimed to be from CEO

An unknown person used Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign Web site to send out threatening and derogatory e-mails to employees at a Texas-based company, according to a lawsuit filed by the company Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.

Like many Web sites, Obama's has a function to "tell a friend" or "pass the word," allowing a visitor to fill in e-mail addresses in the "to" and "from" lines.

The suit, filed against a John Doe and seeking in excess of $30,000, claims someone sent e-mails to all employees of CCR Technologies in September, each time claiming they were from the CEO.

The first e-mail, allegedly from CEO Tom Coyne, was packed with "many racially denigrating words and phrases," and said "if they wanted to keep their jobs, they would support Obama for president and that they would receive a $5,000 bonus for their vote for Obama," the lawsuit claims.

A follow-up e-mail, again sent via Obama's Web site, again purported to be from Coyne and told all employees of the chemical technology firm that the office was closing and if they "would have been better employees [CCR] would have succeeded."

CCR's attorneys at Mayer Brown declined comment. Obama campaign officials said they were unaware of the issue.