This post is part of a series refuting false allegations made as part of a dedicated smear campaign against The Gnostic Movement and its spiritual teacher, Mark H Pritchard. To go to the main page on rebuffing the false allegations click here, or read the background to the smear campaign see here.
Some of the members of The Gnostic Movement have been accused of “fraud” and “illegal activity” by Vernon and Les (who is a former student of Vernon as well as his close business associate and personal friend) who have then astonishingly used this claim to also accuse Mark H Pritchard of illegal behavior such as fraud over this issue, all of which is totally untrue.
None of our members have committed fraud. The allegation of fraud arose from the process of removing Vernon and others from the board of directors of The Gnostic Movement in Greece after Vernon had been asked to leave the organization. All of the existing directors, including Vernon, signed a letter confirming the decision to remove Vernon and some of the other directors from the Greek Board of Directors and add new directors in their place. This letter was then sent to a lawyer, who was to draft new Articles of Association to reflect the updated board of directors, which both the outgoing and incoming directors all needed to sign, and which would then be submitted to the relevant government authorities to make the change official.
The lawyer drafted the Articles of Association with the changes, and all outgoing and incoming directors in Greece signed the Articles of Association first before it was then sent abroad to Vernon for his signature, which was the last one needed. However, Vernon did not return the Articles of Association with his signature for months. The lengthy wait for Vernon’s signature meant that the drafted Articles of Association were now over two months old, and the lawyer was concerned that the government offices in Greece may not accept them. As such, the lawyer advised that it would be better to update the date on the Articles of Association and for all parties to sign again. All previous directors of the organization were informed by email about the change of date and the reason for it, including Vernon.
The updated Articles of Association requiring Vernon’s signature were sent to Vernon. While they were waiting for him to return it, the new directors finally received the previous Articles of Association with Vernon’s signature. This was kept aside, and the new directors continued to wait for Vernon to return a signed copy of the Articles of Association with the updated date.
Weeks passed, and the new directors still hadn’t received the signed copy of the updated Articles of Association from Vernon. The incumbent directors decided that they could not delay any longer in amending the Articles of Association and proceeded with submitting the signed copy with the older date (which they had the authority to do). Inadvertently, however, one of the directors made a mistake in compiling the documents: he included the wrong first page, so that the older copy of the Articles of Association was submitted with the front page of the newer copy of the Articles of Association. The only difference between the two copies of the Articles of Association was their dates. Despite the mistaken first page, the updated Articles of Association were accepted and signed by the tax office in Greece.
Once he became aware of this error, the director sent an email to Vernon to confirm that it was mistake and his intention to correct it. He suggested ways of correcting the situation and requested a telephone call in order to get feedback from Vernon on what he would like to do, but Vernon did not respond.
He spoke to the Court of First Instance, who told him that they were not concerned with this mistake and that he should speak directly to the tax office. He then explained the error to the tax office. The tax office informed him that this was not a problem as far as they were concerned, and that at its discretion the organization could submit new Articles of Association with the correct dates signed only by the new board members. The new directors later had the Articles of Association amended to reflect the original date.
The submission of an incorrect first page along with the Articles of Association was a simple clerical error, involving no malicious intent or intent to acquire illegal profit. The content of the Articles of Association, apart from the dates on the cover sheet, was not altered by this clerical error.
The changes in dates to the Articles of Association and the reasons for them had been communicated to the outgoing board of directors, including Vernon. There was no intent to deceive.
In April of 2010, The Gnostic Movement in Australia received a legal opinion dated April 20, 2010 from a lawyer on behalf of one of the former directors, referred to elsewhere as Les. In this legal opinion, it was concluded that counterfeit and fraud could have taken place with respect to the Articles of Association that had been filed by the new board of directors of the Greek organization.
The basis for this legal opinion was the information provided to the lawyer by Les and/or his associates. The legal opinion was labeled as for “informational reasons” only, as well as being “strictly confidential” and a “draft-for discussion purposes.”
When sending this opinion to The Gnostic Movement of Australia, Vernon also wrote that he would be: “forced to take this matter into [his] own hands to resolve it” and threatened to pursue legal action.
A lawyer representing The Gnostic Movement of Greece contacted the lawyer who wrote the legal opinion. This lawyer said that Les, Vernon and associates were not his clients and had just asked for a legal opinion, which was based on the information they provided. This information did not include all the details of communication as given above. The lawyer who wrote the opinion did so at the request of an interested party, had heard only one party’s perspective on the matter, and did not have a true and complete knowledge of the situation. And yet this is the “legal opinion” that forms the basis for the allegations of fraud by Vernon, Les, and others.
Thank you for this post, it is an answer to all the accusations of fraud towards The Gnostic Movement and Mark H Pritchard that have been circulating for months.
I was the person who was accused of fraud. It was a mistake that I did, and not Mark H Pritchard or any other member of The Gnostic Movement.
It was a mistake and not a fraud as I was blamed of. I never used the signatures of these people to create or change the constitution. I just got the first pages of the two constitutions wrong, nothing more.
When I was informed by them that there was a problem, I answered that I accept my mistake. They presured me to explain to them how I did this mistake and so I did. I apologized for this and I proposed solutions in order to correct it.
But they didn’t answer after this mail and instead sent the legal letter to Australian Board after 2 months.
I am trying, all these months, to understand how someone can interpret a simple human error as fraud and I understand only one thing: These people want to create problems in The Gnostic Movement and to defame Mark H Pritchard for no reason and they will use any excuse they can.
I was first a student and a teacher in the Athens centre when they were still there. Even then, I observed they used to spread gossip and negativity and twist peoples words.
It is a pity that people in Greece have no longer the means to find Gnosis, just because of Vernon and his friends.
Good on you Alexandros for admitting your error. People make mistakes like that so often – just thinking of my workplace I can remember many times when I’ve mistyped a customer’s name, address, or invoice number. Thankfully in those circumstances it has been relatively easy to work with people when I have let them know I made a mistake.
The sense I get about this fraud accusation is that it all could have been resolved so simply if Vernon had responded in a good time in the first place!
A paper with the wrong date was submitted at an office… That doesn’t sound like fraud to me, but it does seem like “Vernon” and “Les” are trying to make a big deal out of nothing then!
Given the untrue nature of many of these allegations, many of which I have experienced personally and in my view unjustly as well, this sad story/chain of events doesn’t suprise me. It seems you can’t do anything these days without it being totally misinterpreted or used against you if there’s someone out there looking to do so, whether they realize it or not.
Based on what’s written here, I’d say this one’s been debunked.
Yeah an honest clerical error to me can hardly be considered fraud…come on! To me, this whole situation is just really sad, how one honest mistake was twisted around and made into a big ‘scandal’. Well it’s good to see this side of things laid out and again to have the record set straight.
And behold the true colours of Vernon and his gang.
How easily one can twist a situation according to the ill will one wishes upon others. It is indeed sad and bizarre how far this has gone, but hopefully the ridiclousness of it all has played out.
It is a pity indeed Alexandros, and I wish you and everyone in Greece for much new inspiration and hope of Gnosis in this coming year. You have braved through a lot, but now it seems a lot of truth has come to the surface despite the sadness to smother spirituality and the right to practice it.
Wishing everyone love and strength
After a while these accusations just seem like a joke. I mean they all signed the paper in the first place…If fraud was intended, Alexandros wouldn’t have said anything to them. But he did. And he has said to them over and over again, privately and publicly, that he made a mistake. What else can he do?
I was in the same center with these people and I can say from personal experience that this is how Vernon and his friends work. They take the simplest things and twist them into horrible lies.
All I hope, is that we can all move on, now that the truth has been said, to do more useful things with our lives.
It seems to me that these allegations of fraud against The Gnostic Movement and Mark Pritchard are based on desperate and manipulating behaviour intended to hurt innocent people and to mislead others.
Thank you for clarifying this situation and also to Alexandros for your clarification. Wish you all the best.
It’s been really beneficial to read the other side of the story. I cannot believe how low these people appear to have gone. Thanks for presenting this.
Yeah thanks for putting the details up for all to read. Again, once the truth is told, it’s easy for any person looking at the events as they are to see that it was a simple mistake. Here’s hoping for the truth to prevail.
I work for multiple NFPs in senior positions. I just don’t understand what the big deal is. This is equivalent to attacking a group for forgetting to dot the i.
Even if it was deliberate as they claim, the changes were signed anyway, so take it easy- no need to start yelling ‘fraud’ and getting all huffy.
Thanks for clarifying things here – obviously, there was no fraud committed, on top of that, as soon as the mistake was caught, all the government offices were contacted to remedy to the error.. To me, again as soon as the full story is placed out, not only does it show that people within The Gnostic Movement take responsibilities for their actions, but that if a mistake is made, it is corrected right away, and not hidden, but shared so that everyone knows what is going on.
I don’t know about you, but to me that shows great ethics, moral and responsibilities… not fraud.
It is quite clear to me that there is desperation and this leads to unsubstantiated claims that have no basis.
Thanks very much for clearing this situation up. Organisations have the right to refute any false allegations and make every attempt possible to clear their name and that of their members.
Glad to see this explained…the whole thing is quite ridiculous, it’s pretty clear to me how all this came about, and very sad that others are jumping on this situation to push their own agenda.
Thank you very much for this blog. It is sad that Vernon and the others used this simple mistake to make these allegations of fraud.
Even when the mistake was corrected, it wasn’t enough for them. I believe they only wanted to find a weak point to accuse the Greek members about fraud.
It seems to me that the ones who are doing all the decieving are the ex-members, thanks for posting this information.