It’s been out of print for many years (I guess that’s part of the conspiracy) but I was able to get an unread pristine copy from a used book store for $5

Wow, what a culture shock. I’d forgotten the defeatist, self-loathing attitudes of the late 1980s that had grown out of a community under siege. And as for this being a manifesto, that’s patently ridiculous.

The one thing which this book called for was a centralized media campaign. And that is something we have never had. The community has far too many folk who jealously guard their turf for us to have ever spoke in concert on any issue, much less organize a cohesive message.

It really is funny (and pathetic) how the anti-gays have latched onto this one book and think it is evidence of a grand conspiracy.

This suggests that he had not disclosed his criminal past to NARTH. This is further supported by XGW’s conversation with David Pruden, NARTH’s Vice President of Operations. While freely identifying Goldberg as Arthur Abba Goldberg, Pruden denied knowing anything of the charges made in Monday’s article.

Of course, this also suggests that NARTH does not perform criminal background checks on people working or volunteering for them, even in (presumably) highly influential positions. Am I the only one that sees that as problematic?

Al Capone was never convicted of murder, racketeering, smuggling, etc etc etc.

Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.

Just quickly, based only on those selected parts of the letter to NARTH:

Strike 1: [Goldberg's] argument that his conduct was neither knowing nor willful is specious. The Illinois criminal-conspiracy conviction clearly demonstrates his purposeful illegal conduct. Moreover, the pre-sentence report in the California action amply illustrates respondent’s knowingly dishonest acts.

Goldberg has peddled this “non-intentional” line for at least 15 years. Unconvincingly. His way of pretending to be innocenct of his crimes?

Strike 2: I’d suggest there is also a far more reasonable way of looking at his guilty plea — he was going down, he knew it, and pleading guilty is a commonplace way to try and minimise the eventual sentence. His fellow conspirators also plead guilty.

Strike 3: Much has also been made by Goldberg’s charitable work with resettling immigrants… but… read below… the credit union referred to is the one that was established for the charity. Nice touch Arthur A, very nice: a truly classy act.

New American Federal Credit Union (NAFCU), a federal credit union formed by respondent and others for the ostensible purpose of making loans to emigres from Soviet Russia. Respondent was former president and chairman of the board of NAFCU. The pre-sentence report contends that respondent controlled the credit union through the NAFCU manager

Strike 4: Grandfathered? Pfft. The reason they got into trouble was because they didn’t have anything to grandfather in the first place. That’s what made the scheme illegal.

The man appears to be as big a shonk in 2010 as he was 25 years ago. That’s the real news for today.

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Just so we all know what we’re talking about, from the SEC Complaint (and sorry if it makes some of you cross-eyed, but it’s relatively straight-forward):

On December 31, 1985 … the last day before the first of the scheduled effective dates in the pertinent tax legislation, defendant [Arthur A.] Goldberg wrote at least twenty-two checks totalling approximately $768 million on a nonexistent checking account at a credit union he had earlier helped to form and which he controlled. The checks were ostensibly used to purchase approximately $768 million of municipal bonds … M&W Inc. subsequently sold these twenty-two issues of municipal bonds to the public throughout 1986 using offering materials which affirmatively and falsely represented that the bonds had been “issued” on December 31, 1985 …

Throughout 1986 … the proceeds of the offerings were not used for the purposes stated in the bond offering materials. The offering materials for these bonds affirmatively and falsely stated that the bonds were issued to finance the construction of various projects, primarily multifamily housing to be occupied in part by low income families. … substantially all of the proceeds of the offerings were intended to be used, and were actually used, to purchase investment contracts to serve as credit enhancement instruments for the bonds, and not for the projects. … M&W Inc. sold these bonds to the public with the advance knowledge of Benoit and Goldberg that the proceeds were intended to be used for purposes other than those stated in the bond offering materials …

… in August 1986 M&W sold 1.5 million shares of its common stock to the public through the use of a materially false and misleading Registration Statement and Prospectus filed with the Commission. The Registration Statement and Prospectus were false and misleading because they included a description of M&W’s business operations and financial condition which omitted to disclose … had devised and carried out the foregoing invalid closing and misuse of proceeds schemes … in August 1986, contemporaneously with the public offering of stock and just before the last of the scheduled effective dates in the pertinent federal tax legislation … once again conducted additional invalid closings using worthless credit union checks … $554 million … sold such bonds to the public through the use of affirmatively false and misleading offering materials …

… failed to disclose any of the above-described events in reports filed with Commission and suspended or overrode its internal controls to prevent the accurate recording of these events in M&W’s books and records. Benoit, Goldberg and Burns falsified M&W’s business records … to conceal the scheme … M&W, M&W Inc., Benoit and Burns have consented, without admitting or denying the allegations of the Commission’s Complaint, to the entry of final judgments …

The Commission’s litigation with Goldberg and Althoff of the allegations in the Complaint is pending …

Securities and Exchange Commission v. Matthews & Wright Group, Inc. et al.,Civ. Action No. 89-2877 (S.D.N.Y.), Litigation Release No. 12072 (April 27, 1989) (settled final orders).