(Part 3 of 6, continued from previous message.
Copyright 1991 by the National Center for Science Education.
Redistributed in the Evolution Echo by permission of the author.)


Loss of Funds by the CSF
Both Price and Plimer have accused the creationists of financial 
wrongdoing.  In 1986, the Australian Skeptics discovered that the 
CSF's financial reports listed a loss of $92,363 (Bridgstock 1986, 
pp. 70-71).  Plimer described this loss in his debate with Gish:  
"So when we look at the Creation Science Foundation in this 
country, it is a closed shop.  Seven people who control it, have 
their hand in the till, whatever you want to call it.  And there's 
a not insubstantial amount of money, $92,358 [sic], which is 
unaccounted for.  It just disappeared.  So you can't trust these 
people with your children,(7) you can't trust them with your 
money."  Plimer (1989) also wrote of this loss of funds in his 
article about the Gish debate in the magazine _Media Information 
Australia_ using the term "financial fraud" (p. 11 and p. 12).
          Barry Price (1990, pp. 186-191) uses several pages of his 
book to describe this loss of funds.  He notes (p. 187) that the 
CSF's director and secretary at the time of the loss, John 
Thallon, was director of a company, Tralil Pty. Ltd., with which 
the CSF contracted for "management consultancy services" for the 
period September 1, 1984 to June 30, 1985.  Price writes that 
"This contract with Tralil is presumably a result of investment 
losses noted in the _Statement of Income and Expenditure for the 
year ended 31st March 1985_, which records 'Extraordinary Item 
Loss of Investments, 1984, $47,939 and 1985, $44,424.'"  It is 
difficult to see how this contract could be a _result_ of the 
losses, given that it was made before the losses occurred.  This 
contract was, in fact, for accountancy services from Thallon, who 
had requested that the CSF hire him as an employee of Tralil, his 
family trust company--a type of arrangement which has since been 
legislated against by the Australian government.  (An 
investigation of this arrangement, unrelated to the lost 
investment, by the Australian Taxation Office, found no 
impropriety.  The CSF's section 23(e) tax exemption was renewed 
without incident.)
          Neither Plimer nor Price has given details on just how the 
investment loss took place.  The lost funds were interest-free 
loans from CSF members which had been invested in a company on the 
advice of CSF director Thallon, who also invested a great deal of 
his own money.  This company in turn invested in yet another 
company, which ended up defrauding its investors, causing losses 
for both the CSF and Thallon.  Since Thallon had recommended this 
investment, he felt responsible for the loss and resigned from the 
CSF.  The CSF notified its "closest supporters" of the loss, who 
contributed funds to pay off the interest-free loans (Robert 
Doolan, personal communication, February 8, 1991).  The CSF 
supporters as a whole, however, were not informed of the loss 
until it was made public by the Australian Skeptics, after which 
the CSF circulated an explanation (Rendle-Short 1988).
          Barry Price (1990, pp. 187-188) writes of other CSF 
directors' resignations in the context of this investment loss:  
David John Denner, Robert Stephen Gustafson, John Mackay, and Ken 
Ham.  Denner resigned because of health problems but is still a 
member of the CSF, Steve Gustafson continues as a legal adviser to 
the CSF, John Mackay resigned and formed his own creationist 
organization because of a personal conflict with another member of 
the CSF staff, and Ken Ham did not in fact ever resign (Robert 
Doolan, personal communication, February 18, 1991).

Analysis:  Plimer and Price have insinuated that the loss of funds 
was due to untrustworthiness of (or, in Plimer's argument, fraud 
by) the CSF, when in fact the causes of the loss were criminal 
actions which victimized the CSF.  Those responsible for the fraud 
have been convicted, and there is some possibility that some of 
the lost funds may yet be recovered.  The CSF should have informed 
all of its supporters of the loss immediately, instead of waiting 
until the Australian Skeptics discovered it, but their reluctance 
to do so is understandable.  Plimer's published remarks led to an 
apology to the CSF and Duane Gish by _Media Information Australia_ 
(1990).
          Price has also wrongly implied that the resignations of a 
number of CSF directors was a result of the loss of funds and 
falsely claimed that Ken Ham resigned.

Gustafson v Price
In Barry Price's summary of the finances of the CSF (Price 1990, 
p. 191), he states that Robert Stephen Gustafson's name 
"disappeared without explanation from company records after a 
payment of $8,719 was made by the board of directors to a company 
in which he had an interest."  He writes this immediately after 
stating that the CSF is not accountable to its supporters and 
bringing up the loss of funds again.  But Price's statement is 
false.  On November 30, 1990, Gustafson filed suit against Price, 
Millenium Books Pty. Ltd., Price's publisher, and Chertsey Fifty-
Nine Pty. Ltd., the printer, for making a false and defamatory 
allegation about Gustafson.  Price failed to file a defense within 
the six weeks allotted, but did file a late defense.  (Such 
tardiness usually requires the defendant to pay the legal costs of 
the action up to the date the defense is filed.)  By August of 
1991, Price's lawyers had offered an apology and pulping of all 
remaining copies of the book as a settlement, which Gustafson 
rejected.  [_Ed:  The book has been withdrawn by the publisher, 
nevertheless, and is now unavailable in the U.S., at least._]

Analysis:  Price made an erroneous remark, in a context which 
implied that the payment was somehow related to the loss of funds.  
In fact, the payment was not only unrelated to the loss of funds, 
the payment was not to Gustafson or to a company in which he had 
an interest.  The payment in question, which was $8,118.75 not 
$8,719, was payment to Tralil Pty. Ltd. for the accountancy 
services of John Thallon.

Alleged Missing Financial Reports
On an Australian national radio broadcast on Robyn Williams' 
"Ockham's Razor" show of January 8, 1989, Ian Plimer stated that 
the CSF "submitted no annual report for 1988, no annual report for 
1987, and no annual report for 1986" to the Corporate Affairs 
Commission.  Barry Price (1990, p. 190) writes that "Reports for 
1986 and 1987 do not seem to be available.  Presumably extensions 
have been granted by the Corporate Affairs Commission because of 
extenuating circumstances."
          In fact, the CSF has filed returns for each of these years, 
all of which were available at the time Plimer spoke on the radio 
and by the time Price's book was published.  A letter dated March 
7, 1989 from J. Kral of the Office of the Commissioner for 
Corporate Affairs to Carl Wieland, managing director of the CSF, 
states that "You are advised that all the Annual Returns mentioned 
in your letter have been lodged with this office."  The letter 
goes on to give the dates on which the returns for 1986, 1987, and 
1988 were filed:  August 8, 1986, December 4, 1987, and December 
5, 1988, respectively.  This evidence was supplied to the 
Australian Broadcasting Company, which on June 4, 1989 apologized 
for Plimer's remarks.

Analysis:  Plimer and Price both made false statements which they 
could have easily checked out but didn't.  Plimer (personal 
communication, January 9, 1991) offers no explanation for his 
remarks, but maintains that the ABC "caved in" by apologizing 
against his recommendation.  He has neither apologized nor 
admitted any error, and claims that the CSF is using the apologies 
from ABC and _Media Information Australia_ as part of a 
"propaganda campaign" against him.