DeepBlackLies

Bringing in-depth reporting of crime and corruption in high places

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A Matter of Distrust - the Seagrave Affair

(my only griping session - ever!)

In early September 1998, I mailed a batch of documents relating to black market gold transactions to author, Sterling Seagrave. These were sent for discussion purposes and as a result of an understanding reached on collaborating into the ongoing cover-up of what really happened to all the gold and other assets plundered by the Japanese during WWII. Seagrave had covered this subject in two principal chapters of his book, The Marcos Dynasty, published by Macmillan, London in 1988.

Several months earlier, Seagrave had made it clear that for him to collaborarte on research of mutual interest, he wished to focus on what he called "upstream projects" whereas I should continue to harness my efforts on what he termed as "downstream." Downstream, he explained, covered what happened to all the gold and plunder "..after it is removed from WW2 hiding places." Upstream, meanwhile was everything that related to the gold and treasure up to and including its entombment in "WW2 hiding places."

Consequently, as mentioned above, in early September I airmailed numerous documents to Seagrave's residence at Banyuls, in South Western France. These were provided with the explicit proviso that they must be subject to complete confidentiality. Seagrave ackowldged and agreed to these terms in his email of 16th September 1998 in which he stated:

"...Confidentiality is a bottom line. "

But apparently the "bottom line" for Seagrave didn't amount to very much at all. In late Autumn of 2002, Seagrave published his book Gold Warriors, together with two accompanying CD's of exhibits. Both CD's contained copies of the documents and papers I had sent to him in strict confidence.

It is true that when I received a copy of Seagrave's Gold Warriors manuscript a year or so before it was published, I became completely disillusioned due to his encroachment into the "downstream" in the book - a fact he openly admitted with an empty apology. Consequently, I resolved not to communicate with him again... and hadn't. Until, that is, I learned he had published some of the confidential documents i had earlier provided to him.

Some of these documents had been published in my e-book, The Secret Gold Treaty, two years earlier. By reproducing them, Seagrave had not only breached a contract of confidentiality, but had infringed international copyright.

On 31st January 2003, I contacted him privately, demanding that he take approrpriate remedial action. He chose not to respond to this letter. Consequently, I sent a further copy on 3rd February 2003. He ignored that also.

I then notified Verio Inc, Seagrave's Internet Service Provider, under penalty of perjury that Seagrave had infringed my copyright. Verio informed Seagrave that he had to remove the offending materials or face having his website blocked. At the eleventh hour, after consulting with Dan Cathcart, his US based attorney, Seagrave issued a letter signed under penalty of perjury, that the material in question had been removed (click HERE to see a copy of his letter - 1.29 megabytes pdf file).

Was Seagrave's decision to publish these documents merely a slip of the memory of an ageing man or does it exhibit an ingrained and callous lack of integrity? If the former, then one could reasonably suppose that once his attention had been drawn to the copyright infringement, he would be swift to take all necessary remedial action. Instead he ignored my letters to him and only took action when forced to do so by Verio Inc. This, I think, speaks volumes about his character.

I now see that Seagrave's manuscript has been placed on the internet and is now available for free download HERE .

Which just goes to show that once you transgress old fashioned values like trust and integrity, your sins will be sure to find you out.

 

 

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