The Daily Stormer homepage on February 27. Andrew Anglin of the Daily Stormer, described by America's Southern Poverty Law Center and many others as a neo-Nazi site, claimed to have engaged Mr Hickey's company, Smerff Electrical, as a corporate sponsor on February 3. The Daily Stormer features sections including "Jewish Problem" and "Race War", regularly uses racist slurs and Mr Anglin has identified as a Nazi. It has recently featured articles headlined "Jews Destroy Another One of Their Own Graveyards to Blame Trump", "Milk: The New Frontier of White Supremacy" and "Trump Refuses Invitation to Faggot-Jew Fake News Dinner Party". Mr Anglin didn't respond to a request for comment.

Dr Abramovich said he wondered how Mr Hickey's customers would react if they knew that he was supporting such a "dark, perverse and extremist ideology". "This is wrong on so many counts and makes me sick," he said, in a statement. "We are deeply shocked to see such a public and unabashed display of hatred in our midst. There is nothing funny or amusing about this racist and abhorrent image of Pepe the Frog as a SS soldier in the Auschwitz death camps where nearly 1.5 million people were murdered and gassed. "(It) has become a calling-card for the White-Supremacist movement and they have used this particular cartoon widely on social media to normalise and to promote their repulsive agenda of intolerance and xenophobia so as to recruit new members." Mr Hickey didn't answer questions about the sponsorship or apparent use of Nazi symbols in his logo.

"It doesn't matter what I say to you guys in the fake news, you will lie, twist and selectively edit any response I give to suit your own story and paint me in a negative light," he said, in a statement. "The simple matter is - if our media had even a scrap of credibility left, people wouldn't seek their news and information elsewhere. "The Lame Stream Media Fake News never ending lies spread by you people are rapidly drawing to an end, and for most of us it can't come fast enough." He also threatened legal action if his response was not posted in full. Fairfax Media wasn't legally compelled to publish the full email but has chosen to do so below. The Electrical Safety Office has taken action against Smerff Electrical and another of Mr Hickey's businesses, Air Conditioner Expert, on two separate occasions, a spokesman said.

In 2013, it issued an improvement notice following a complaint about electrical work and last year it asked the company to take remedial action over a "sexist" Gumtree ad. "ESO will look into claims Smerff Electrical is using the business address of another company and will take appropriate action if required," a spokesman said, in relation to another complaint. Electrical Trades Union organiser Wendel Moloney said the man wasn't a union member and the ETU stood for a more inclusive type of society. "I don't even know if it's a real business advertisement," he said. "It looks like it's just a stitch-up, some intellectual giant with nothing better to do with his time."

But Mr Hickey is registered as an electrician and a contractor in Queensland, and trading as Smerff Electrical out of another business's address at Hillcrest, a suburb of Logan, south of Brisbane. Fairfax Media spoke to a former supplier and a former customer of the company, which was also registered to Mr Hickey with ASIC, where its principal place of business was listed in the neighbouring suburb of Underwood. The Smerff Electrical website features an origin story of sorts about the business, detailing the owner's complaints about safety regulations and his sacking for "not wearing his fluffy velvet mittens". "The horror!" It was like a new holocaust all over again," the site reads. "The faggot PPE safety inspector was shocked."

The website is registered to the Landser Trust, which is linked to Mr Hickey's Air Conditioner Expert business, and also features a section called Rassenkrieg - German for race war. Internet archive searches appear to show that it underwent a significant redesign in early February, which added the new logo and confirmation of the Daily Stormer sponsorship. "We call on political and communal leaders to stand up and to say that there is no room in our community for such expressions of prejudice and discrimination," Mr Abramovich said. Mr Hickey's statement to Fairfax Media, in full: Hi Jorge,

It doesn't matter what I say to you guys in the fake news, you will lie, twist and selectively edit any response I give to suit your own story and paint me in a negative light. The simple matter is - if our media had even a scrap of credibility left, people wouldn't seek their news and information elsewhere. The Lame Stream Media Fake News never ending lies spread by you people are rapidly drawing to an end, and for most of us it can't come fast enough. The insane far left agenda pushed by the western worlds media has been exposed for the fraud that it is after their coverage of Hilary Clintons (sic) election loss. Trump has called you out as the enemies of the (American) people. However in your case, replace that with Australian. You can't keep people in the dark forever Jorge. We know your game. Is that a veiled threat to my business and livelihood in your email? The 'stump up your own hard earned to support it'. What are you trying to say Jorge? That the left would attempt to silence any opposition or support of opposing views by any means necessary so they don't have to debate their insane ideas in the public arena? Come on now Jorge, we all know the left would never resort to such gutter tactics. Why would you not publish this statement in full Jorge? Are you hiding something on the orders of Fairfax Jorge? The West has enetered (sic) a new era with the change of leadership in the USA, and one can only hope that once the swamp has been drained there, we can begin draining this one. Exposing all the traitor press members willing to lie to the nation for a few lousy dollars. The worst offenders will face trial, as for the rest of you.. Maybe it's time you considered a career change - I hear North Korea is looking for newspaper editors. If you clean up your act, they may even offer you a job. Pack some warm undies Jorge, and send me a postcard ! Publish that in full or publish none of it. That's my statement and it is prohibited to copy any part of it selectively unless it is published in it's entirety or legal action will follow Sincerely

Simon Hickey Smerff Electrical