James Raptis, the media lawyer identified by an ABC investigation as being linked to an AI plagiarism operation, has left his position at Australian Community Media (ACM).

ACM chief financial officer Chris Hitch informed staff in an internal message that Mr Raptis had tendered his resignation and would finish up at the company immediately.

"I'd like to thank James for his contribution since joining ACM last June," Mr Hitch wrote.

"We wish him well in his future endeavours."

The statement did not provide any reason for Mr Raptis leaving ACM, and the company told the ABC it would make no further comment about his departure.

The ABC has contacted Mr Raptis for comment; he did not provide a response immediately.

Last week, the ABC revealed Mr Raptis's links to a network of websites – called F1 Initiative, League Initiative, Surf Initiative and AliaVera – that were publishing plagiarised articles from Australian and international news sites.

Journalist Patrick Woods said whoever was operating the sites was one of a new breed of "parasitic plagiarism merchants" after his stories on the Townsville Bulletin were rewritten and mangled by AI before being published on League Initiative.

When the ABC contacted Mr Raptis to ask whether he was behind the sites, they were all taken down within hours.

Mr Raptis admitted to hosting the websites, but told the ABC he had "never written any content for them".

He claimed that he initially helped set up the sites, which featured his by-line and office address, but had been unaware they were publishing plagiarised stories.

Mr Raptis's social media activity showed that he followed – and liked plagiarised articles posted by – one of the sites.