POLGAR LASHES OUT
by Bill Goichberg
USCF Executive Board member Susan Polgar posted the following on her blog on May 13, 2009. My comments are in blue.
Under the leadership of USCF President Bill Goichberg, Vice President Jim Berry, VP of Finance Randy Bauer and Executive Director Bill Hall, the USCF lost approximately 1,500 members (according to Mike Nolan) in February in comparison to 12 months ago.
The USCF also lost $420,000
(according to USCF Chief Financial Officer Joe Nanna) in the first 7 months of
this fiscal year.
False. Joe Nanna reported no such thing, and
the actual loss after the first 7 months was $45,713. The loss after 11 months
is $62,553. We would have a surplus had we not been sued by an
Executive Board member.
In the month of March, the USCF
lost 2,049 members compare to
a year ago.
In the month of April, the USCF
lost another 2344 members
compare to a year ago.
Scholastic membership especially has been
declining in recent months. Probably the principal cause is the economy;
many schools have less money to fund chess programs.
The USCF membership was nearly 96,000 in 2003
and it is less than 80,000 right now.
The apparent implication that this was caused by
the current board is misleading. In 2003 and 2004, USCF lost 11,846
members. In 2003 through 2005, USCF lost 13,145 members.
In 2006 through 2008, USCF lost only 1,481 members.
In addition, due to incompetence and mishandling of legal contracts, the USCF
lost the $150,000 guaranteed annual revenues from our official B&E partner.
We did not lose $150,000, we replaced our partner
with a new one who will also pay USCF substantial revenue.
We did not receive the full guaranteed $150,000 for 2008-9 from our previous
partner and the matter is going to arbitration.
The USCF can longer afford to host its own U.S. Championship / U.S. Women's Championship, send teams to the Olympiad or the World Team Championship. In fact, the USCF cannot even afford to send its own Zonal President to the FIDE meetings to fight for the rights of our players.
USCF has found excellent sponsorship for the U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship, and substantial partial sponsorship for the Olympiads. We would be in much better financial shape were it not for legal bills related to a board member who has sued her own organization, and another board member who refused to cooperate with a USCF investigation of his improper conduct.
We don't need to pay our Zonal President's
expenses to go to FIDE meetings and have rarely done so in the past.
Especially with finances tight due to legal bills, why pay when this is not
necessary?
If it was not for the generosity of the KCF or Mr. Sinquefield, there would be
no U.S. / U.S. Women's Championship and our teams could not go to the Olympiad.
But as of now, our team has no money to compete in the World Team Championship.
If we found no sponsors as well as being saddled
with Polgar/Truong related legal expenses, these events would be in peril.
However, we DID find sponsors! How much sponsorship have board members
Polgar and Truong produced for USCF?
Instead of focusing of fixing the many serious problems and finding ways to cut
spending and increasing revenues, the USCF leadership continues to use USCF
members' money for political purpose.
There is nothing political about defending USCF
from lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits. We could have done a whitewash and
declined to consider the powerful "fake Sloan" evidence, but that would have
been improper and caused major risk of a large successful suit against USCF.
Many decisions that could effect the future of the entire federation are being
made in secrecy. At least two current board
members, including USCF President Bill Goichberg, and one past board member were
involved in a "bribery for votes" scheme.
A "bribery scheme" exists only on the Polgar
blog and forum, where "anonymous" posters appear to be using the strategy of
"Repeat a lie enough times and it becomes true."
Unfortunately, the truth is being hidden from its members. Instead of
focusing on promoting and growing chess and the USCF,
hundreds of thousands of dollars of USCF
members' money have been spent without proper authorization to go after people
who are critical of this administration, including USCF volunteers, members and
delegates.
The truth is not hidden, it's available at
www.uschess.org/legalupdates.
3-time U.S. Champion GM Lev Alburt spoke out here about his experience serving on the USCF board. 5-time U.S. Champion GM Larry Evans also spoke out about it many times in the past.
Is Polgar trying to pretend that statements made by Alburt and Evans about 17 years ago were intended to apply to the current situation? Why is it that when she posts these old comments, no date is ever included?
And while we're on the subject of Evans, Polgar
submitted a sworn statement to the court saying that I attacked Evans when he
ran for the USCF Executive Board in 1992. This statement has accuracy that
is typical of most Polgar claims, as Evans NEVER ran for either the Executive
Board or its predecessor the Policy Board.
No matter what kind of pressure I face, I will continue to report to you what
goes on behind the scene and what are some of the causes for the failure of the
USCF. It the next month, I will share with you the specific problems and
potential solutions to fix these problems.
Glad to hear that Polgar will continue reporting to
the USCF membership. Here are some questions I hope she will address in
her reports:
1. Why did Polgar, who as an Executive Board member has a fiduciary duty to work for the best interest of USCF, file a suit which if successful, will destroy the organization?
2. Why did Polgar sue USCF and many others for libel and slander without providing examples of statements that were libelous or slanderous?
3. How did Polgar obtain private emails of board member Randy Hough including attorney-client privileged information?
4. Why did Polgar and Truong fail to reveal to the USCF voters that they were married to each other in their Chess Life campaign statements, so the voters could decide whether they wanted one family to control half the votes needed to pass a board motion?
5. Why, when asked if she was married to Truong on Feb 16, 2007, did Polgar respond, "Paul is my business manager and one of my best friends" when they were in fact married to each other?
6. Why did neither Polgar nor Truong resign from the USCF Executive Board after a federal judge hearing a case involving them wrote, "Husband and wife should not be on the same board, one of them ought to resign."?
7. Why, if Truong is not guilty of making the defamatory "fake Sloan" posts, does he refuse to deny under oath making these posts?
8. Why, if Truong is not the "fake Sloan," did he refuse to cooperate with USCF's investigation by asking his ISPs to provide information as requested by the federation's attorney?
9. Why did Truong file for bankruptcy in New York on June 21, 2007 swearing he was unemployed and had no income, after he began working for Texas Tech June 1, 2007?
10. Why, in Truong's bankruptcy filing, did he swear that Susan Polgar's income was about $10,000 per year, after boasting earlier that she commanded one of the highest fees of anyone in the chess world and was continually booked for appearances?
11. Why did Truong claim in his 2007 election campaign to have worked for, and "turned around," billion dollar companies, a claim never documented?