Chess politics - Legal threats from Polgar and Truong

Author

Legal threats from Polgar and Truong

Sam Sloan

2006-08-02, 11:24 pm

Legal threats from Polgar and Truong

On Friday, July 21, 2006, it was announced that Sam Sloan had been
elected to the USCF Executive Board. Almost immediately, Paul Truong
started attacking me in postings to the USCF Forums website. Today is
Jaly 27 and in the six days that have since passed, Truong has
attacked me a total of 115 times, including 25 times so far today.

Truong has repeatedly accused me of being a sexual predator. He states
that parents of scholastic players should be warned that there is a
sexual predator on the USCF Executive Board. He has threatened to file
lawsuits.

His allegations are completely and utterly false.

I know of no organization that would tolerate this sort of language on
an official website. I cannot understand why Mike Nolan, the
moderator, does not delete it.

Since Paul Truong has produced no proof for any of his claims, I have
asked the moderator, Mike Nolan, to delete his postings. So far, Mike
Nolan has not acted although he has in the past deleted postings by
both Paul Truong and Susan Polgar when they contained false
statements.

It is noteworthy that Truong has not posted these allegations on the
much more widely read public newsgroup rec.games.chess.politics . The
reason is obvious. Paul Truong has a long and well known history of
attacking chess officials and of making false and fraudulent
allegations on that group, so if he tried to post his claims there he
would be immediately refuted. In addition, he has on numerous
occasions threatened to file lawsuits and he has stated that he
actually did file a lawsuit against the USCF VP of Finance and against
the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the USCF.

On the other hand, the USCF Forums are relatively new. Many USCF
members do not even know about them and most of the regulars there do
not know Truong's history.

Paul Truong first appeared amongst us at the August, 2003 US Open and
Delegates meeting in Los Angeles. The Executive Director, Frank Niro,
had just resigned and disappeared. Paul Truong applied to be his
replacement and presented a very impressive resume. He was immediately
hired. However, within a few days, questions started to be asked about
that resume. Paul Truong promptly resigned. Since then, the claims
made in that resume have proven to be unverifiable. For example,
Truong stated that he has a PhD degree. When somebody asked where he
got that PhD degree and in what field it was, he never answered.
Indeed, Truong now refuses to answer any questions about his
background.

Regarding Truong's claim that I am a Sexual Predator, it is
significant that in 1986 I gave Susan Polgar an expensive computer and
I lived in her apartment in Budapest for several months when Susan was
16 years old and her sisters Sophia and Judit were 10 and 9. In the 20
years that have since passed, Susan Polgar has never made any such
claim. Frankly, as a result of living with them, I know a lot of
family secrets of the Polgar Family, which would be highly
embarrassing to Susan if I revealed them, but I will not go that
route.

Throughout the election campaign, there were dozens of postings by a
Fake Sam Sloan that made scurrilous and usually obscene statements
supposedly signed by me. Indeed, the number of postings by the Fake
Sam Sloans greatly exceeded the number of real postings made by me. As
soon as the votes were counted and the results announced that I had
been elected, the postings by the Fake Sam Sloans stopped. That was
also when the postings by the Real Paul Truong started.

Accordingly, it is highly likely that Paul Truong was the Fake Sam
Sloan. Indeed, if you search the Internet you will see that several
regulars have long been convinced that Paul Truong was the Fake Sam
Sloan. I once thought that I had the proof, but the posting that
proved this quickly disappeared.

Paul Truong has a history of posting under fake names. For several
months in 2003, the newsgroups were filled with postings by Bob
Bennett. We all had a problem with this because there is a real USCF
member named Bob Bennett living in Utah. However, finally, an
observant poster was able to prove that the Bob Bennett who was
posting was the same person as Paul Truong.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....1d690b2e80bd686

Truong was caught because Bob Bennett and Paul Truong always posted
from the same IP Address. It seems that after being caught that time,
Paul Truong learned how to post from several different IP addresses in
SouthEastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, leading many including
myself to believe that the Fake Sam Sloan was Stan Booz, Neil Brennen
or Ray Gordon, all of whom are disliked by Paul Truong.

Truong now posts as ChessPromotion or ChessMarketing. He never signs
his name any more. As a result, is it difficult to search his past
postings. Many readers do not realize that all these postings
attacking me are by the same person.

Sam Sloan

Taylor Kingston

2006-08-02, 11:24 pm

Sam Sloan wrote:

quote:

> Frankly, as a result of living with them, I know a lot of
> family secrets of the Polgar Family, which would be highly
> embarrassing to Susan if I revealed them, but I will not go that
> route.

Ah, Sam, your legendary discretion, comparable to that of a tabloid
gossip columnist, is an example to us all.

Chess Freak

2006-08-02, 11:24 pm

"Sam Sloan" <sloan@ishipress.com> wrote in message
news:44c9281a.95674437@ca.news.verio.net...

quote:

> Legal threats from Polgar and Truong
>
> Truong has repeatedly accused me of being a sexual predator. He states
> that parents of scholastic players should be warned that there is a
> sexual predator on the USCF Executive Board. He has threatened to file
> lawsuits.
>
> His allegations are completely and utterly false.
>
> Since Paul Truong has produced no proof for any of his claims
>
> Sam Sloan

Huh? You claim on your very own website to be a sexual predator
of underage women. You mean to tell me you LIED? *gasp*
How much stuff have you deleted since getting elected to the EB?
If 1/100000 of what is on your website is true, there is no way
I'd ever let you near one of my daughters. Face is Sam, most
people think you are a very sick and disgusting human being.

How many times have you been married, Sam?

What do you do for a living, Sam? (Occupation: Internet???)

- CF

Spamscone@yahoo.com

2006-08-02, 11:24 pm

Sam Sloan wrote:

quote:

>
> Truong was caught because Bob Bennett and Paul Truong always posted
> from the same IP Address. It seems that after being caught that time,
> Paul Truong learned how to post from several different IP addresses in
> SouthEastern Pennsylvania near Philadelphia, leading many including
> myself to believe that the Fake Sam Sloan was Stan Booz, Neil Brennen
> or Ray Gordon, all of whom are disliked by Paul Truong.

Who are the "many" posters who allegedly thought I was the Fake Sam
Sloan? The only two I know of are you and Brattleboro's Nearly an IM.

Heimdal

2006-08-02, 11:24 pm

"Taylor Kingston" <> Ah, Sam, your legendary discretion, comparable to
that of a tabloid gossip columnist, is an example to us all.

quote:

>

Why even mention that, unless Sam is concerned that there is a Polgar who
has a tail to tell, and Sam is warning her off????

Very suspicious.

Al

Sam Sloan

2006-08-28, 7:34 pm

In fide-chess@yahoogroups.com, Recmate@aol.com wrote:

quote:

>
> In a message dated 8/27/2006 1:22:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jerryhanken@aol.com writes:

quote:

> 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

Louis Blair

2006-08-28, 7:34 pm

Bill Goichberg (Mon Aug 28, 2006 11:25 am)
Post subject: Re: Legal threats from Polgar and Truong
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_
samsloan wrote:
_
In fide-chess@yahoogroups.com, Recmate@aol.com wrote:

quote:

>
> In a message dated 8/27/2006 1:22:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jerryhanken@aol.com 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

Louis Blair

2006-08-28, 7:34 pm

quote:

>
> In a message dated 8/27/2006 1:22:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> jerryhanken@aol.com 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

Louis Blair

2006-08-28, 7:34 pm

Sam Sloan (sloan@ishipress.com)
(NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.120.148.215)
wrote (Mon, 28 Aug 2006 14:43:58 GMT):

7 ... Regarding the legally frivolous threat by Truong to sue the
7 USCF over the three pictures on my website, I will state
7 categorically that the pictures are not coming down. They
7 will remain on my website for as long as I have a website.
7 As several others have pointed out, they stand as Exhibit A
7 in my defense to the utterly false and outrageous claims
7 that Truong keeps making about me.
7
7 The pictures themselves prove that Truong is a liar. I do
7 not have to write one additional word about it. ...

_
"... I will take [the picture of me and Susan and the
Goletiani sisters at the Kasparov vs. Computer Man
vs. Machine Match] down when the post saying that
Susan and the sisters tried to hide from me then,
when it is admitted that that, and whole post, was
not true. The picture clearly refutes those ridiculous
charges, ... I have to keep the picture up to prove the
truth, ..." - Sam Sloan (sloan@ishipress.com,
NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.120.148.215, Thu, 24 Aug 2006
12:40:10 GMT)
_
The Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:24 pm Paul Truong note referred
to WGM Goletiani "hiding behind" Paul Truong "when she
saw Sloan. She said I hope he does not see me and made
a big face." How do the pictures prove that that did not
happen? In another paragraph, the note also said:
"[WGM Goletiani] was very uncomfortable seeing him.
She reacted the same way as Susan Polgar. They were
both polite to him in public but they were both very
uncomfortable having him near them."

samsloan

2006-08-28, 7:34 pm

At 11:35 AM 8/28/2006 EDT, Chessoffice@aol.com wrote:

quote:

> In a message dated 8/28/2006 10:56:53 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>samsloan@samsloan.com writes:

quote:

>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.

quote:

> 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.

Thank you for pointing out this letter. I receive more than one
thousand emails per day, and I simply missed this one.

It is a lengthy, well-written letter and I agree with the conclusions,
although I remain unhappy that the USCF paid money to a lawyer to write
this letter.

Regarding issuing a disclaimer, I am more than willing to post on my
website and in my emails and newsgroup postings the standard disclaimer
that the opinions expressed are my own and are not to be confused with
the official position of the USCF or its Board.

Sam Sloan

Jonathan Kamens

2006-08-28, 7:34 pm

"samsloan" <samhsloan@gmail.com> writes:

quote:

>Thank you for pointing out this letter. I receive more than one
>thousand emails per day, and I simply missed this one.

Sam, it's not other people's fault that you can't manage to
read your email without missing messages, and you certainly
shouldn't be lobbing around accusations that things were not
sent when it's just as possible that you just didn't notice
them in your "more than one thousand emails per day."

As for your volume of email, if a lot of that is spam and/or
viruses, then you really need to find yourself a better spam
filter. For example, I use bogofilter. By itself, with no
assistance from blacklists, greylists, etc., it traps pretty
much all the spam I receive, such that I never see it. See
<http://stuff.mit.edu/~jik/#spam> for a graph which
illustrates this. The recent peak was August 7, when I
received 1,163 spam and virus email messages and bogofilter
let through only 10 of them.

--
Help stop the genocide in Darfur!
http://www.genocideintervention.net/

Kenneth Sloan

2006-08-28, 11:34 pm

"samsloan" <samhsloan@gmail.com> writes:

quote:

> At 11:35 AM 8/28/2006 EDT, Chessoffice@aol.com wrote:
>
>
>
> Thank you for pointing out this letter. I receive more than one
> thousand emails per day, and I simply missed this one.

Perhaps you need a spam filter.

Oh...wait...that might not work...

--
Kenneth Sloan sloan@uab.edu
Computer and Information Sciences (205) 934-2213
University of Alabama at Birmingham FAX (205) 934-5473
Birmingham, AL 35294-1170 http://www.cis.uab.edu/sloan/