[Foundation-l] Statement to the Associated Press

[jmerkey at wolfmountaingroup.com]

I am notifying the foundation I was approached on Friday by the Associated
Press regarding statements attributed to me which are in some way,
perceived to be related to Mr. Wales private affairs which seem to have
gotten a great deal of press coverage.   I have a detailed collection of
email exchanges with Mr. Wales and Foundation employees over some period
of time which seem to be of apparent interest to various parties involved
in this controversy, and I have informed all parties that I will of course
disclose such materials subject only to a lawful subpoena or other
instrument as required by law since they contain confidential discussions
regarding business dealings with the Foundarion.  I have, however, been
asked for a formal statement admitting or denying various allegations
which purport to claim my involvement in any of Mr. Wales business
activities.

Since I am obligated to protect my own good name, I feel compelled to
address various allegations in order to distance myself from this
controversy involving Mr. Wales so the facts are not spun into something
they are not.  As such, I issued the following statement to the associated
press in response to their inquiries regarding my involvement with Mr.
Wales and his business dealings.  This statement was sent on Friday, March
7, 2008.


--- STATEMENT TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ---

"According to Merkey, in 2006, Wales agreed that in exchange for a
substantial donation and other financial support of the Wikimedia
Foundation projects, Wales would use his influence to make Merkey's
article adhere to Wikipedia's stated policies with regard to internet
libel "as a courtesty" and place Merkey under his "special protection"
as an editor.  Merkey later withdrew his financial support of the
Wikipedia project after reviewing evidence of diversion and
mismanagement of the charities funds by Wales and the Wikimedia Board of
Trustees and was immediately banned from the Wikipedia site by the
Arbitration Committee for frivilous and unsubstanciated claims after he
terminated the payments of $5,000.00 per year to the Wikimedia
Foundation."


--- END OF STATEMENT ---

I hope this clarifies the rumors and allegations being posted on various
blogs.   As I am certain everyone is aware, I have continued development
of my Wikipedia projects and kept a safe distance from the Foundation
since these events, and I plan to continue to develop tools and refine
machine translation for Cherokee and other languages, however, I have
little interest in becoming embroilled in the internal affairs of the
Foundation or Wikipedia at present, and in fact, have no need to do so in
order to accomplish my objectives and use Wikipedia's high quality content
for my projects.

I wish Mr. Wales and everyone the very best, and hope these issues can be
sorted out.

Sincerely,


Jeffrey Vernon Merkey