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**Sam Sloan**

In , wrote:

In a message dated 8/27/2006 1:22:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, writes:

This is a public note to Eric Johnson. I too am bored out of my mind with
this non issue. The picture was taken by Paul, not disputed at all by anyone,
then he sent it to Sam, as he had other Susan pictures umpteen times in the last
couple of years, and Sam put it up on his website as he had many others, When
Sam got elected, Paul decided that he could get some kind of points by
attacking Sam, who knows why (I have my own theory), but that is irrelevant.
The Official USCF lawyer has opined that Paul has no legal right to demand that
Sam take the picture down.

That is incorrect. The Board has received a confidential letter from our
attorney, and as what you post is wrong, you are obviously not aware of its
contents.

Bill Goichberg

I am deeply disturbed by this posting by Bill Goichberg. I am a member
of the board and I have not been informed that advice of counsel was
solicited on the Picturegate Affair, or that the lawyer had written a
letter about this. Lawyers generally do not write letters free of
charge. If the lawyer was paid one thousand dollars to write this
letter, that means that the membership dues of 25 members at $40 per
member has gone down the drain.

I have not received any board BINFOS or group emails from the board in
several days. I do not know whether this is because I am being
excluded from board discussions, or if there simply have been no board
emails.

Here above Bill Goichberg states that the information provided by
Jerry Hanken about the lawyer's advice is wrong, but fails to inform
us what the lawyer actually said. More importantly, he has failed to
inform me of what the lawyer said, even though I am a member of the
board and the subject of the letter.

Bill has done this many times before. For example, when I wrote that
the USCF had paid more than $39,000 as a result of the legal threats
made by Truong over the issues involving the Woman's Olympiad Team,
Goichberg vehemently denied this but refused to state what the correct
amount was or to whom it was paid or for what it was paid.

I am certain that the amount of $39,000+ is correct. So, the questions
remain as to whom it was paid and for what. When I raised this issue
in my first closed meeting of the board and asked to see copies of the
Truong documents, including the legal contracts, I was told that the
documents could not be found. When, later in the same meeting, I asked
to see the AF4C Contracts, I was told that those contracts and
supporting documents could not be found either. My further inquiries
along this subject line eventually led to the revelations about the
300 missing boxes.

I have since been informed that the Truong documents, the AF4C
documents, and all other contracts were kept together in one binder in
a filing cabinet near Barbara VanderMark's desk. That binder cannot be
found. I tend to suspect that the binder has been swiped. I would like
an inquiry to be made as to who last saw that binder and who has had
access to that filing cabinet.

Again, I would like to point out that this entire issue arises because
of the abolition of the paper BINFO System. Ken ("The Good") Sloan has
been complaining about this since 2000, because he was a paid
subscriber to the BINFOS. Had the BINFO system not been abolished,
then all board members plus qualified outside scribers such as Ken
Sloan would have copies of the contracts and there would be no danger
that they would be lost.

Regarding the legally frivolous threat by Truong to sue the USCF over
the three pictures on my website, I will state categorically that the
pictures are not coming down. They will remain on my website for as
long as I have a website. As several others have pointed out, they
stand as Exhibit A in my defense to the utterly false and outrageous
claims that Truong keeps making about me.

The pictures themselves prove that Truong is a liar. I do not have to
write one additional word about it.

More than that, Truong has a long history of threatening to sue the
USCF. Each time, the USCF has capitulated, either caving in to his
demands or sidestepping the issue. Truong is not the first to learn
that if you want to get some money out of the USCF, just threaten to
sue. Just ask Ed Labate who, as I recall, was paid $30,000 in response
to a threat to sue, even though he had no case. (Recently, Labate has
been threatening to sue Chess Digest. Will they pay too?)

Some of the new board members may not be aware that Truong has
repeatedly threatened to sue the USCF. Here are some examples.

1. Truong threatened to sue over the Anna Hahn Affair. The USCF
sidestepped by holding the 2004 US Woman's Championship. Truong was
not happy and complained bitterly about it, but did not sue.

2. Truong threatened to sue over a report that apparently originated
from Grant Perks (who strangely is now his Best Buddy) and circulated
by Stan Booz that Susan Polgar cheated in a 2003 Internet chess match
against Grandmaster Boris Gulko, by being assisted by Paul Truong who
was using a computer. Polgar won the match against Gulko by 2-0. It
was reported that many of the moves played by Susan matched those
suggested by a computer.

3. Truong demanded to be paid $50,000 for providing chess lessons for
the 2004 Woman's Olympiad Team. This was settled by the payment to the
Susan Polgar Foundation, of which Truong, Susan Polgar and Frank Niro
are members of the board, of $19,000+.

4. Truong demanded $5,000 for each player, or a total of $20,000 for
the four players on the Woman's Olympiad team, even though it was well
known that the USCF was not sponsoring the Woman's Team but was only
sponsoring the Men's Team. This was due to an ambiguity in a letter
(which I still have not been allowed to see, so I do not know what it
contains) which stated that the team would receive a total of $5,000
each if they won the silver medal. This amount of $20,000 was paid. I
do not know if it was paid to Truong, to a Truong entity such as the
SPF, or to the players individually. I would like to find out.

5. Truong has repeatedly threatened to sue the USCF over what he calls
the "illegal contract" the USCF made with the Kasparov Chess
Foundation, or KCF, to sponsor the 2006 Woman's Team. Truong
apparently feels that the USCF was required to renew the 2004
contract, so that Truong would get another $19,000+. Meanwhile, the
USCF has thanked the KCF for providing $40,000 in sponsorship money
for the 2006 Woman's Team. (Susan Polgar did not play on that team as
a result of what Truong called the illegal deal with KCF.)

Throughout this time, Truong has repeatedly referred to both the
current board and to the previous board as "Evil Chess Politicians".

Now, Truong threatens to sue the USCF over something that has nothing
to do with the USCF, specifically three pictures of Susan Polgar and I
together, which are on my website.

I believe that the time has long since arrived that the USCF needs to
take a stand against Truong and against all others who would threaten
lawsuits. No major organization can afford to capitulate to frivolous
threats of litigation, for the simple reason that once you start
paying blackmail money, the demands will never cease.

The time to stop paying money to Paul Truong is NOW.

Sam Sloan