ChessBanter - View Single Post - USCF Pension and Finance Problems and Slow Response From Board

**samsloan**

Quote:

Originally Posted by chessoffice

Quote:

Originally Posted by DACP

I would respectfully suggest that
Mr. Goichberg look at the email dated 4/14/07 from Sam Sloan which was
addressed to Bill Goichberg and others. It's listed as Confidential
and was based on a motion made by Don Schultz. Sam Sloan voted yes on
the motion. If Mr. Goichberg could please advise if the employee
mentioned in that email who was the "next case in line and is now
waiting" has been paid. Also, please advise if the "another recipient
of the fund money" who is unsure if he got the correct amount has
received any correspondence from USCF.

I can't find any such email. If you have it perhaps you could forward
it to me privately.

Bill Goichberg

I wrote several letters on 4/14/07 regarding problems with the pension
plan. All of them were re-classified as "Confidential" by Mike Nolan.

Is this the one:

At 01:23 AM 4/15/2007 EDT, wrote:
In a message dated 4/15/2007 12:34:21 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
writes:

Sometime between the Prisco problem and the Anson problem the pension funds
have apparently shifted from an outside, independent account, not in the
control of the Federation, to an account within the control of the USCF. My
belief in this matter comes from Mr. Goichberg's statements that he is a
signatory to those accounts and the fact that the alleged bounced checks
originated from the USCF and Mr. Hall stated that they would be taken care
of by the USCF.

I WOULD LIKE TO EMPHASIZE HERE THAT IN MY VIEW THIS SHIFT FROM AN OUTSIDE
ACCOUNT TO AN INSIDE ACCOUNT OCCURRED BEFORE MR. GOICHBERG BECAME PRESIDENT
AND BEFORE MR. HALL BECAME EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR. Nonetheless, they, and we,
have to deal with it.

If it did, it was prior to Dullea's term.

In my view, pensions are regulated by Federal Law. A shift of assets from a
pension account to a USCF account is, in my view, a violation of Federal Law.

It's still a pension or profit sharing account- managed by USCF, but not a
USCF account.

Further, if such a shift did occur, GAAP requires that a separate fund for
pensions and their liabilities be recognized on the audited annual USCF
statements, even if it is illegal. To my knowledge, no such shift has been
recognized in our statements.

I think that they once did give details.

Thus, in this lay person's opinion, the U.S. Chess Federation is operating
in violation of Federal Law.

I don't think so.

My recommendation is that we pursue this matter vigorously.

AT THE VERY LEAST, FULL BANK STATEMENTS FROM THE DELAWARE BANK ACCOUNTS
FROM THEIR INCEPTION MUST BE MADE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE.

NOW.

Yes.

And we need to cooperate in pursuing appropriate criminal indictments
against those responsible.

NOW.

Not to do so is to become complicit with crime.

Almost certainly, there has been no crime. Bill Goichberg

Of course, I hope I'm wrong about this matter. I fear, however, that I am not.

Cordially,

Tim Redman

I am shocked by Bill Goichberg's statement above "Almost certainly,
there has been no crime" when it is perfectly obvious that there has
been a crime, for the simple reason that a check was written for
$24,000 signed by Bill Goichberg and Joel Channing with no money in
the bank. Writing a check with no money in the bank is a crime. I
realize that a public prosecutor is probably not going to be much
interested in this case now that the check has apparently been made
good after bouncing twice, but nobody should say that no crime has
been committee when a crime has been committed.

I am glad to see that now Tim Redman is weighing in with complaints
about this, with the result that Joel Channing has ordered an
explanation from Bill Hall stating "I want you to send a detailed
response to Tim's letter to everyone listed above no later than Monday
morning. I also want a memo no later than Monday afternoon ..." This
in spite of the fact that, this weekend, Bill Hall is at the National
High School Championship in Kansas City. (Remember that this is one of
the National Scholastic tournaments that is supposed to make us back
the $241,000 we were losing according to the January financial
statements.)

Previously, when it was just me complaining about the bouncing check,
Joel Channing had merely orderded Bill Hall to prepare a memo for the
May 19-21 meeting.

It is obvious that the bouncing check is a symptom of a much bigger
problem. This problem has been going on for a long time. I complained
about it in my first meeting of the board on August 14, 2006, but I
knew that there was a problem with the pension account nearly two
years before that. Now, we learn that there is a bank account in
Delaware that nobody previously knew about and for some reason money
must be moved from some other account to that account in order for a
pension check to be paid.

And nobody has mentioned the 800-pound gorilla in the room, which that
a lot of improper things are known to have been done while Frank Niro
was Executive Director, and the laptop computer Frank Niro used while
working for the USCF has gone missing, and neither Bill Goichberg nor
Bill Hall are taking appropriate steps to get that laptop back.

The fact that the Delaware account had Frank Niro's name on it should
raise some eyebrown since Frank Niro left the employment of the USCF
in August, 2003, nearly four years ago.

What about the fact that Bill Goichberg was Executive Director for 15
months from October 2003 to December, 2004? Why did not Bill Goichberg
do something about this during the 15 months when he was in a position
to do so?

I would like to ask Joel, our esteemed VP Finance, how a nonprofit
organization can have a profit-sharing plan!

The outside world does not know it yet, but I have just been censured
again on a motion by Channing and Goichberg for making remarks
critical of Bill Hall. There seems to be a pattern here. Every time I
uncover a serious problem and point it out, rather than address the
problem, the board majority immediately censures me. It happened in
the Tanner case and now it is happening with the bounced check. As
long as I do not vote on these repeated motions to censure me, the
board majority of Channing, Goichberg and Hough have enough votes to
censure me every day if they want to. That still will not cure their
problem of the bounced check.

I think that Bill Hall should have been fired months ago and Joel
Channing and Bill Goichberg should resign now.

Sam Sloan