Daniel Evans of Ormita Allegedly Defames IRTA and Ron Whitney
Over the course of the past year, the International Reciprocal Trade Association and its wholly-owned subsidiary corporation, Universal Currency Clearinghouse, Inc. (collectively “IRTA”) have been the target of a concerted disinformation campaign by the Ormita Commerce Network and its Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Evans, which is adversely affecting IRTA’s reputation, as well as having a negative impact on the credibility and stature of the trade, barter and alternative capital systems industry.
False and malicious information are consistently being disseminated by Mr. Evans and Ormita concerning:
- Size, global reach and growth of IRTA’s membership
- Leadership in the development of ethical standards and values, and ethical requirements compulsory for its directors and members
- Resources and efforts directed at trade broker training and certification
- Sound fiscal operations and systems required of trade exchanges
- Sponsorship of international conferences with extensive educational seminars and speakers
- Industry information and legislation clearinghouse activities with press releases and new flashes
- Advocacy efforts and promotion of barter and trade
- Research and educational capabilities and resources
As a result, IRTA is reluctantly issuing this response to the continuing defamatory and disparaging statements regarding IRTA, it executives, board of directors, and members.
Speaking on behalf of IRTA, Ron Whitney, Executive Director, states IRTA’s official response: “Through a barrage of false, misleading and derogatory statements, e-mails, and internet postings which have been continuously repeated in their now year-long disinformation and harassment campaign, Mr. Evans and other personnel within Ormita are regrettably attempting to mislead those connected with the barter trade and alternative currency industry into a belief that our organization is not committed to promoting just and equitable standards of practice and operation within industry or to raising the awareness and value of alternative trade and barter throughout the world. Just the opposite is true, but Mr. Evans and Ormita apparently do not want to be distracted by the truth or actual facts in their current vendetta against IRTA and myself personally. It is unfortunate that Mr. Evans and Ormita are not directing their energies and efforts positively for the good of the barter and alternative currency industry.”
Annette Riggs, the President of the Global Board of Directors of IRTA, provides the viewpoint of the many trade exchanges who comprise the IRTA global community: “The information coming from Mr. Evans and Ormita is completely and utterly false. Most disturbing and repugnant is the vulgar and offensive personal attacks Mr. Evans has made against Mr. Whitney, myself, and certain IRTA Global Board members as part of his campaign of disinformation. It is regrettable someone is our industry would engage in such conduct.”
The false and distorted statements continue to be made despite numerous formal and informal attempts over the past year by IRTA, its management and members, to have Mr. Evans and Ormita halt their deceptive practices. Mr. Whitney communicated on behalf of IRTA with Mr. Evans in August of 2011 attempting to specifically respond to misstatements made by Mr. Evans and set forth the many recent achievements of IRTA. When this communication was ignored, IRTA through its corporate legal counsel, Steinbrenner Law Offices, LLC, sent Mr. Evans and Ormita’s Global Leadership Team extensive factual information in 2011 concerning IRTA and its accomplishments and successes, but again to no avail. IRTA will continue its ongoing efforts to correct the disinformation being published by Mr. Evans and to share well documented factual information concerning its positive activities and accomplishments.
IRTA members are squeaky clean? Does IRTA look the other way while allowing and not disciplining exchanges who follow unethical or bad business practices, including deficit balances.
am quite concerned that the International Reciprocal Trade Association seems to be ignoring the salient points of my complaints, none of which I believe are either defamatory or vulgar.
The main points are to be found at the website: http://www.internationalreciprocaltadeassociation.com however they can be summarised as follows:
1. One IRTA director has a fake university degree from a diploma mill which is on the CIA list for fraudulent activities (it no longer exists either). This is not what one would consider to be “ethical”.
2. The current IRTA president stated in writing that “I wouldn’t sign that either” (with regards to the IRTA ethics complaint form).
The IRTA Ethics Complaint Form states that:
“complainant and its officers and directors specically waive any legal recourse against the above-mentioned persons stemming from this ethics complaint and dispute resolution process, and acknowledge that by participating in this process they grant a full and unconditional release of legal liability to such persons.”.
“I wouldn’t agree to the terms of the (IRTA) complaint form if I had a legal dispute either.”
Annette Riggs (Current IRTA President and Director of Community Connect Trade LLC) 27th July 2011.
3. The current IRTA president is in business with a convicted felon. I find this disturbing given than no convicted felon may work in a FDIC insured company or for any insurance firm in the USA. I believe the barter industry needs to hold itself to the same standards.
4. IRTA does not have a publically accessible resource library. This is essential for an association whose stated goals are “public education”.
5. IRTA claims less than 500 barter networks exist worldwide. Our tally is approximately 2500 such exchanges including community currencies, LETS exchanges, Time Banks, Countertrade, Corporate Barter and Retail Barter Exchanges. I have questioned IRTA how these differ so radically.
6. IRTA member, BCLSOFT, produced an entire website entitled “danielevansormita.com” where it posted defamatory comments under “anonymous” ownership of the domain. Only after 6 months of fighting with GoDaddy was the ownership and authorship of that domain name revealed to be BARRY COHEN / BCLSOFT. Further admission of this fact was received from BCLSOFT. I find it interesting that IRTA considers this “ethical” and that IRTA’s own lawyer, Carl Steinbrenner, is representing the Cohens in this matter while also sending us an Ethics complaint form on behalf of IRTA in an email sent to us literally minutes later (the same form that IRTA’s own President says she would not sign).
Some quotes from OTHER members of the barter industry about IRTA (with respect to their “ETHICS”):
A quote from a former employee of a barter exchange:
“Some of the people on the (IRTA) ethics board are very unethical. Not all, but the one I used to work for. ”
Another barter exchange company owner states:
“many of my connections in the barter industry are from those who have been in the business for many, many years. They have chosen not to become part of IRTA for various reasons”
Yet another barter exchange company owner states:
“We base our relationships, business and private , on trust and respect and go for longterm relationships. We have unfortunately not found this in irta.”
Also posted to this forum is the following statement:
“I joined and was in the organization for several years….and resigned after realizing that nothing was going to be done about the issues I stated. If those issues still persist…and it appears that they do….then obviously, the current members have been unable to address and resolve these issues as well. Sounds like a problem to me. Oh, and I never said there were not nice people in IRTA. I am just saying that there are some bad decisions being made…which has nothing to with whether people are nice or that IRTA has hard workers. Maybe it would be best for IRTA to be honest and repeal the Code of Ethics since there is no real intention of enforcing it. ”
I believe there are real issues in IRTA. It is a shame that they are obfuscating the issues and not working towards a resolution - which is to operate in a professional manner where they act in the interest of all members. If IRTA claims they have addressed any of these issues they are welcome to post their reply on the internet with the exact proof of having answered those questions above. For the record: I have never received such a reply.
If any information posted at http://www.internationalreciprocaltradeassociation.com is incorrect then I’ve asked them to inform me however they refuse. If the information is accurate it is therefore not defamatory and, by and large, it is cut and paste of their own material (with reference sources linked) .
Thank you.
Daniel Evans
Ormita Commerce Network
Where did my response go I wonder?
Hey man, this site is a very part time gig for me. Relax.
Well after months of fighting and ultimately kicking cancer right in the ass….I have to say Daniel Evans brings up some valid points. Much like the NCAA which makes millions off student athletes I have often wonder if the I.R.T.A. is like one of the Alphabet Soup organizations that “sanction” professional boxing?
For a guy who is presumed to have “defamed” the IRTA…..I’d say he comes across with a check list of hard hitting bullets that should be answered rather then brushed aside.
On a personal level…..I learned long ago that I could make a small fortune in Barter without the need to associate with organizations that were more “symbolic” in nature then actually proactive in promoting the industry much less putting a dollar or two in my pocket.
Glad 2 see you are still cranking out the news, Tyler.
Peace, Vegas Vince
I must wonder about IRTA not addressing the core of Daniel’s ‘allegations’ regarding IRTA. I know that in the case of our company, we lost between T$25-50,000+ due to the collapse of BarterCard US in 2007. It was our observation that Bartercard Int’l, the licensor, did NOT uphold the IRTA rules. We waited YEARS for some good faith showing from either Bartercard or IRTA.
Eventually, only this year - 6 years after the collapse of Bartercard US, was a settlement offer made for a fraction of lost value, and that offer required cash-transaction monies be paid to IRTA. Further we note that in spite of our numerous phone calls and letters to IRTA, we were not privy to the offer initially as it was keptn hush-hush only to the reciprocals and existing IRTA members.
We ultimately declined the substandard and somewhat disrespectful offer.
We also note that NO OFFER of redress was ever made to the bulk of Bartercard US members who totaled a loss in excess of T$5,000,000. These were the “lowest tier” of retail trade exchange members who paid hefty Bartercard membership fees up front and believed that Bartercard Int’l, its full faith and credit, stood behind every US member.
In the end, Bartercard and IRTA stayed silent and to our knowledge never addressed or attempted remedy to what we think was the biggest collapse-loss of any North American barter exchange historically to date.
How can such a magnitude of collapse be so callously swept under the carpet?
Is Bartercard still a member of the IRTA Ethics Committee?
Will IRTA be transparent enough to allow this comment?
What does IRTA have to do with this website? We’re independent of IRTA, NATE, and any other organization. We allow the comments we allow for no other reason than we allow them because we want to.
Yes, excuse me - I wanted to edit after posting. I also wanted to add BIG KUDOS to Daniel Evans for attempting to hold IRTA accountable.
It is interesting to see, in retrospect, that Daniel Evans showed so much distain for IRTA this long ago. Did they know something about Ormita that we didn’t know? Were Ron and Annette getting too close to the truth about the true nature of Ormita? Was the fraud going to be discovered if Daniel didn’t go after IRTA?