At the ANA Summer Seminar Session II banquet tonight Executive Director Larry Shepherd announced that the 4 lawsuits against former ANA employees and a contractor have been settled. A formal announcement is pending. These lawsuits were started by the former Executive Director and have been a huge drain on funds and a major embarrassment for the ANA. Many members left and countless potential members decided not to join because of the controversy surrounding the lawsuits. I spoke with Mr. Shepherd afterwards and he said, while the exact terms may not be released, the terms of the settlements are very agreeable. As an ANA member I am very happy to have this sorry chapter behind us and hope the ANA can move forward and fulfill their mission.
First you must understand this - the former Executive Director was a lawyer. Need I say more? The suited alleged the computer services contractor (a guy that set up and ran the ANA's computers for years) used the ANA's server to host his own site and stole some proprietary information. If I remember right he refused to turn this info over to ANA when he was fired and wasn't paid. (That is stealing to a lawyer.) The former employees were sued for posting some defamatory information about the former (at the time the current) Executive Director on web sites and for disloyalty. In my opinion these lawsuits should never have been filed. This is what happens when you have a lawyer for Executive Director and general legal councel.
It took a week for the news to be reported by the media. ANA settles suit with ex-staffers I am interested to learn the total cost to the ANA of these lawsuits. Several months ago it was around $750,000 and a former law firm in Denver was suing for around $400,000 more. I would not be surprised if the total cost exceeds $1.5 million after the ANA pays for some of the defendants' legal fees. As usual, the only winners here were the lawyers. Shakespeare was right.
After following this story the entire time, I am not so sure that he actually took anything that was proprietary. But that's just my opinion. I'm not an ANA member, but I can say that this whole business has turned me off of the ANA, so much so that I'm thinking of actually joining the ANS instead. Still, I'm glad to see it's finally settled. It all seemed so petty, really.
I doubt he stole any proprietary information. This sorry mess has drug on for so long that some of the details may be a bit fuzzy in my mind but my recollection is the former ANA Executive Director became upset when he learned that the IT contractor was also using the ANA's server to host his own web site (perhaps not kosher by the letter of the law but not a serious offense in my book as this guy had been running ANA's computers for about 12 years and created the ANA web site and his personal site was small and did not use very much of the ANA server's resources). The disagreement became a test of wills due to the personality conflict (a common theme) and became a law suit because, well, the ANA Executive Director is a lawyer and that's what lawyers do. I think the IT contractor - who, by the way, is a Life Member of ANA - decided to withhold some information (perhaps it was the ANA web site design - I cannot be certain) when he was fired to use as leverage to get paid. That must be where the "theft of proprietary information" came from. The entire episode could have been avoided if another person had been Executive Director at the time. That is the sad thing. This episode has left the ANA with a black eye and turned off untold numbers of collectors from becoming members of ANA or continuing to be members. This entire sorry mess was orchestrated by a single individual (with tacit approval of a Board of Governors - who have all been voted out of office now) who, thank God, has since been fired. It will take time - and money - to clean up the messes he created and left behind. I really think the new Executive Director is committed to getting this sorry episode resolved satisfactorily and getting the ANA heading back in the right direction. Hopefully the ANA can regain the trust and respect of the collecting community and built its membership so it can fulfill its mission - To encourage and educate people to study and collect money and related items by promoting, preserving, and protecting the interests of those who desire to “Discover and Explore the World of Money.”
A lot of lawyers start more trouble than they stop .JMO . Had to put "JMO" in or I might get sued . rzage
