Debunking Claims of Fraud

People from an US Sambo company claimed that I did not earn an Honorable Master of Sport diploma, incited by the President of their association, Stephen R. Koepfer. On their company forum, before I resigned from their organization, they claimed that I did not have an Honorable Master of Sport. So, I took down my picture frame and scanned it in several pieces and reassembled it as one image (the diploma is 11×14, whereas the scanner is 8×11, so scanned it in two pieces and then put them together so you could see all the nice scrolling of the original document).

After their attack, I resigned from their organization, because I was not going to support an organization which cannibalized its supporters in the same way that other Sambo organizations had done in the past, the very reason I resigned from my position as President of the first American Sombo association, Vice-President of the American Sambo federation, Chairman of the International Combat Sambo Commission for FIAS (the international governing body for Sambo) and US National Coach for our team. I don’t have time for politics, as I believe in an athletes-first approach to martial arts. And frankly, it consumed too much of my personal time that I devote to actual training!

Now, they claimed because the online image was multiple scans of the document to fit my scanner, Steve and his cohorts have started an online smear campaign, by claiming that not only my HMoS diploma was a fake, but also my certificates from the Israeli counter-terrorism base I just returned from training.

http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92118

So, in the event that any innocent readers see these lies from Steve, I dismantled the picture frames in my office and scanned just the center of HMoS diploma, and uploaded it. It’s not as nice as the first online image, because the scrolling doesn’t fit on the screen. But, at least it’s a “clean” image with incontrovertible proof of the veracity of the document.

The document that had been used online from LOTAR - the Israeli counter-terrorism base - was given to me by Maor Bashan - chief instructor of Krav Maga training on the base, which he posted online. Rather than take the original signed document out of the picture frames, I just used Maor’s image.

But of course, Steve and his organization used this as a means of claiming the document was a fake, that I forged it. Only amateurs would think that anyone would be stupid enough to fake documents from the Israeli special forces. A professional knows that you would just… let’s say, not be in a position to ever make that mistake again, if you did. So, I dismantled my picture frames in my office and scanned in the originals and posted them.

Now, they’re claiming that because I posted new images, that somehow I must be a fraud because I “changed” them from the prior. This I don’t understand. Their nonsense has spilled into 3 forums across the internet so far. It’s no longer Steve “wondering” if my credentials are fake (inciting an online riot of people claiming that they are). Now, it’s across the internet of people claiming that I’m a fraud. Steve knows very well what he’s doing. This is transparent political subterfuge.

I shall never give him or his company the satisfaction of responding to their online inquisition. But for you, my friends, students and brothers in arms, I want you to know the truth, and for any claim I have made, I will provide you with proof and evidence to back it up.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt.

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Scott Sonnon

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