Bill Goichberg (Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:25 am)
Post subject: Legal threats from Polgar and Truong
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_
samsloan wrote:
_
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.
_
Sam, Bill Hall emailed a copy of Mike Matsler's letter to the entire
Board, including you, at 4:57:32 pm on August 25.
_
Quote:
_
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.
_
I don't think there have been any Board emails in several days until
today except for the Matsler letter sent by Bill Hall.
_
Quote:
_
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.
_
You should have received the letter, which is marked confidential.
My copy's recipient list shows that you were copied by Bill Hall. I
am not going to post what the lawyer said and you should not either.
_
Quote:
_
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.
_
You said that $39,000 was paid to Truong, but nothing was paid to
Truong.
_
As I have said more than once, the mistake by Diane Reese
resulted in $5000 each being paid to Zatonskih, Krush and Shahade.
Susan waived her claim to that $5000. Nothing went to Truong.
_
And under the Niro contract with KCF and two Polgar groups, about
$19,500 was paid to KCF and SPF as reimbursement, based on
receipts, for Olympiad training expenses. Some of this (I believe well
under $10,000, I don't remember the exact figure) went to Susan for
training the other women, but there were also other trainers (Kasparov,
Gulko) and some of the money went to the players for travel expenses.
Nothing went to Truong.
_
If you say that USCF paid $34,500 and that Truong was pushing for
this payment, you may be right. If you say that USCF paid $39,000
to Truong you are totally wrong.
_
Quote:
_
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?)
_
Your recollection regarding Labate is misleading. USCF paid him
$30,000 because the Federation's lawyer (consulted too late) advised
that due to the failure of USCF to follow proper legal procedure, the
Federation was vulnerable to having to having to pay a large judgment
if we did not agree to a settlement.
_
Quote:
_
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+.
_
See above. The SPF is not Truong, the KCF is certainly not Truong, and
the payments were based on receipts.
_
Quote:
_
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.
_
How many times do I have to tell you? Three players received $5000
each directly from USCF and Susan waived her payment. The total was
$15,000, not $20,000.
_
Quote:
_
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.
_
I am not aware of any request from Paul Truong for money, so exactly
what is it that you don't want us to pay?
_
Bill Goichberg