Discovering Skeptic Con-Man Al Seckel within the Epstein information (Half 1)

Now that the Epstein information have been (reportedly) absolutely launched, I knew that Seckel should be in them. Seckel organized a “Mindshift” Science convention on Lolita Island, and he married the sister of Ghislaine Maxwell. The query is, what’s in there? 

“Jeffrey Epstein and Al Seckel have assembled a various and eclectic intimate group of outstanding thinkers and achievers to debate varied subjects….”

I wrote about Seckel two years in the past, “The Unusual Life and Loss of life (?) of Al Seckel.” (It’s best to learn that first if you happen to’re unfamiliar with the Seckel saga.) I first met Seckel on the 1984 CSICOP Convention, held at Stanford College. He was then an enthusiastic younger man of twenty-six, (falsely) claiming to be a graduate pupil in “physics” and “historical past of science” at Cal Tech. (In actuality, Seckel by no means accomplished a single 12 months of school.) He sought me out as a result of I had been a co-founder of the Bay Space Skeptics (together with the late magician Bob Steiner) simply two years earlier. Seckel defined that he was within the technique of founding an analogous group, the Southern California Skeptics (SCS). He needed to debate our experiences, and get my recommendation. Later, he organized for me to offer the primary lecture to the Southern California Skeptics.

I put a query mark after Seckel’s reported loss of life in France in 2015, which has been extensively reported however by no means formally documented.

My search of the official DOJ Epstein Website for “Seckel” returned 1,376 outcomes. It’s apparent that a lot of them include duplicate info; I’ve tried to handle this as finest I can. So some necessary info would possibly probably be overlooked, though that appears unlikely. A lot of their correspondence considerations agreeing on a time for a phone speak. There are additionally the errors of OCR, particularly round a blanked-out area. I discover it humorous that the e-mail handle Epstein was utilizing was “jeevacation@gmail.com”. I can think about what sort of trip he would possibly take into account! 😂 At one level (repeated in a number of paperwork), Seckel says to Epstein, “You might be clearly having manner an excessive amount of enjoyable,” however doesn’t specify what sort of enjoyable he means.

What occurred with the Southern California Skeptics? We find the following testimony from Bart D. Hibbs:

Seckel impersonating an actual scientist

I’m an engineer at AeroVironment in Simi Valley, CA.
I’ve recognized the plaintiff Al Seckel since roughly the mid Nineteen Eighties. In roughly 1984, Al Seckel based a skeptical group to counter varied pseudoscientific beliefs in widespread tradition. This group was known as the Southern California Skeptics (SCS). In
approximately1987, I used to be appointed by the Board to take over the function of SCS Treasurer from the earlier treasurer John Edwards, and continued on this official function till the group suspended its actions someday in 1990. Between 1987 and 1990 I used to be formally listed as
the SCS treasurer on all SCS mastheads. I reported to the SCS Board regularly
concerning the funds of SCS. Al Seckel was current at these conferences, together with different SCS
board members. I additionally repeatedly attended the conferences of SCS.  I not often see Al Seckel
anymore.
Through the time that I used to be SCS treasurer, I personally dealt with all of the funds and
accounting of the SCS. This process included protecting observe and recording all revenue/bills
of SCS, in addition to examine writing privileges for varied SCS bills. I made copies of all
checks, all financial institution deposit receipts (which included money deposits from the basket to gather
donations in the course of the conferences). All of this I entered into an accounting program on my
pc, and the outcomes of the accounting got to the SCS board on the Board
conferences, and correct and true annual accounts have been revealed within the LASER, the official
E-newsletter of the group. I took this job very significantly, and did it myself. Al Seckel by no means
tried to affect me in any manner in doing the accounting, was not concerned within the
accounting, and I used to be by no means “underneath his management” as some folks have falsely claimed. I’m
my very own individual and do my very own work.
Whereas I used to be treasurer of SCS, at no time was there any vital revenue into the group,
and legit bills appeared to all the time rapidly devour any revenue that got here in,
even though the group was run on a really tight shoestring. Any revenue to SCS was
rapidly eaten up by bills that associated to mass promotional mailings, subscriber
mailings, printings of the flyers and different promotional literature, printing of the LASER
(the official journal of the group), subscriptions, guide purchases, banquet and convention
prices, prices of the Beckman Auditorium, and different professional SCS bills. On a number of
events, SCS was brief funds to cowl the bills that needed to be outlaid. At this level,
Al Seckel would step in and put his personal private funds into the SCS account to cowl the
SCS account in order that it might not be overdrawn. As SCS was all the time working at a slight
loss, Seckel would not often, if ever, reimburse himself for the cash that he outlaid to cowl
SCS. Different Board members additionally contributed some funds to maintain SCS afloat. Seckel didn’t
“loot the skeptics out of existence” as has been falsely claimed.
The rumors which were associated to me that Al Seckel had one way or the other been inappropriate,
misused, or taken funds from the SCS accounts for his personal private profit are fully
opposite to my expertise and data. I can not say this extra emphatically, as the reality
is simply the other! I do know of no basis to those claims in any respect. The declare made by Pat
Linse that Al Seckel obtained $60,000 from SCS (throughout my tenure as treasurer 1987-1990) is completely false and with out advantage. I by no means noticed these sorts of funds within the Skeptics at any time.
The accounting books of SCS have all the time been open to anybody that requested. These books
had copies of all checks deposited, originals of all checks written, copies of all deposit
receipts, all SCS financial institution statements, and a computerized accounting of all transactions. All of
this was ready solely by me. A real and proper copy of the SCS accounting books have been
offered to Elie Shneour, Phillip Klass, and CSICOP. I can not recall anybody else that ever
requested me to look at them. I saved them in my possession till roughly a number of years
in the past, when lack of area and any curiosity in them, made me resolve to throw them out. This
is a call I did completely alone, and I didn’t seek the advice of with anybody about it, as SCS
had closed down its operation effectively over 10 years beforehand. That is what I knowledgeable Al
Seckel when he contacted me lately for copies of the SCS accounting books.
Lastly, there have been allegations that Seckel one way or the other “fabricated” the accounting
books to make them seem as if he didn’t “loot the skeptics.” I do know of no motive to do
this, because the professional accounting books confirmed simply the other: that he helped preserve the
Skeptics financially afloat, moderately than looting it. As well as he by no means accessed the
pc on which I saved the information with out my presence. The pc was nearly
all the time at AeroVironment so he couldn’t have gained entry to it with out my data.
I declare underneath penalty of perjury underneath the legal guidelines of the State of California that the
foregoing is true and proper.
Executed at the present time of December , 2007 , at Simi Valley, California.
Bart D. Hibbs 

In regards to the alleged monetary improprieties inside SCS, the late, highly-respected Pat Linse, co-founder of the Skeptics Society, instructed a
completely different story. As she explained to Michael Shermer, the opposite
co-founder:

  As for the attendees’ record for the Mindshift convention, Seckel writes the following:

Certain (all are confirmed and booked except Nathan under):
Al Seckel
Murray Gell-Mann
Gerald Sussman
Christof Koch
Frances Arnold
Leonard Mlodinow
Ron Reisman
Pablos Holman
Brock Pierce
Baron Reichart
Paul Kirkaas
Dan Dubno
Nathan Mhyrvold (ready, attempting to coordinate his schedule to come back)
I had earlier requested a 3 different buddies of mine to attend, however they’d different
commitments, however will one other time:
Danny Hillis
Ed Witten
Kip Thorne 

Seckel asked, 

if you happen to may give me a date (I assume the situation could be your island), what do I
provide them, when it comes to journey preparations? 

Epstein’s reply was: 

every thing„ resort airfare, meals

Seckel and Isabel Maxwell, talking on the WEF, 2011

Apparently, at one level Seckel asks Epstein about “discovering” his “analysis work” (Ha!) :(clearly “funding” – Seckel retains apologizing for typos, blames his telephone)

I’m questioning who “MIKE” is 😏. Clearly these two are unwilling to danger placing any actual content material of their discussions down in writing.  And I do not consider for a minute that Epstein’s “servers” would come crashing down until he wired extra money to Seckel!