Judge with a Grudge?

Here is the text of the article which was the subject of Mr Vadney's lawsuit against one of his neighbours. His case against the other three defendants was dismissed before going to trial. In the remaining case, the judge held that Mr Vadney had only succeeded in proving the truth of the allegedly defamatory article.

Judge With A Grudge?

NEW BALTIMORE – You wouldn’t just accept the word of a used car salesman, would you?

Well, that’s exactly what Harold W. Vadney, write-in candidate for New Baltimore Town Justice, is asking you to do. His posters around town claim he is “Ethical, Professional, Fair and Independent”. His mailings and recent articles in the local press make him seem like he’s all that and more, so we asked around to see what kind of a judge he would really be.

We have been unable to find any endorsement whatsoever, unlike his opponents. In fact, it was hard to even find any supportive voters. Driving around, the only political signs we could find for him were on public property, unlike his opponents whose support is seen peppering private property all over town.

So, rather than relying on his sales pitch, we dug a little into his background and managed to engage a few individuals who actually know him. A different picture emerged. In fact, we discovered a man who seems to have the reputation of discrediting and ridiculing anyone who disagrees with his form of ‘justice’.

A simple web search uncovers a detailed, documented history of fellow business associates accusing him of displaying a violent temper and verbal abuse. Although these are personal opinions, one reads numerous allegations about his poor business practices and writers express shock and are aghast at what they claim is his extreme behavior. In just one example, Scott Horne, a business colleague, contends in a web forum, “Mr. Vadney does indeed have a fine reputation for withholding payment...threatening people who make public the truth about his failure to pay...and assaulting people with profanity.”

“I have absolutely no contact with him”, says John Luckacovic, a long-time hamlet homeowner and neighbor of Mr. Vadney, “and yet he has held a grudge against me ever since I dropped my complaint about the barking dogs kept in the house he shares with his partner. It makes no sense.”

“Things got better with the dogs, so I withdrew the complaint and the judge dismissed the case,” he continues, “but Mr. Vadney refused to be dismissed, and for more than a year, he has trumped up fictional complaints about me and my wife, sent the state troopers to our house numerous times, written hateful letters to the editor about me and even created a website specifically dedicated to discrediting the judge who dismissed the case.

According to Mr. Vadney’s website (http://vadney4justice.home.att.net), the dismissal of the case to which Mr. Luckacovic refers so infuriated Mr. Vadney that he wrote a 50 page (yes, 50 pages!) complaint to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct in an attempt to throw the Hon. Joseph Farrell off the NB bench. Twice, the Commission rejected his complaint.

Neighbors who know Mr. Vadney say his intense finger wagging is common knowledge to everyone around him. They contend it includes numerous petty, unsubstantiated accusations and a relentless harassment of his neighbors to obey laws of his own invention. By his own admission on his website, he places lengthy letters and calls to news media and various elected and unelected town leaders and politicians including the Greene County Sheriff’s office, the local NYS Trooper barracks, even Governor George Pataki, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Charles E. Schumer, to name but a few! Anyone with a few hours to spare (it took us more than three) can navigate around his website to learn more about this candidate’s views.

As soon as his website appears, Mr. Vadney sports an official campaign photo showing him in front of a 13 star Colonial American flag. One wonders if this symbolizes the 18th century justice Mr. Vadney would like to see for New Baltimore: one of witch hunts, stockades and public flogging.

Paid for by Voters4Justice

So there you have it: the allegedly “defamatory” article, found to have been proved true by the legal efforts of none other than the Vadney himself.

By the way, access to most of Vadney's web pages is blocked (whether at his instance or by the host on the basis of the content is not clear), but he was kind enough to post a scanned version of the article, which I downloaded and posted here.

What next?

The Vadney is posting new messages to his scandalous blog at a fast and furious rate. I have better things to do than answer or even read all of them. A few comments will have to suffice:

• The Vadney seems to have trouble with simple things like reading and arithmetic. (His writing skills aren’t up to much, either!) For example, he mentions my retirement in the “early 80s”, and referred to the date as 1981 in a comment he attempted to post on this blog. Actually, as my CV shows, I retired in 1985. Similarly, he places my age in the “mid 50s”, despite my having given my birthdate as 28 May 1957, which makes me 50 at the time of writing.
  
  
• The gap in my CV, as one might suspect given the reason for my early retirement, was due to health problems. This is one disadvantage of being truthful; if I had the Vadney’s ethics, I could simply have put in other jobs, or backdated the beginning of my translation career.
  
  
• The Vadney, not for the first time, tries to cast doubt on my credentials. As far as I know, the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University and the Chartered Institute of Linguists all confirm their degrees and diplomas free of charge. So I would invite anyone who entertains the suspicion that the Vadney has a point to contact the institutions concerned. For reference, here are the degrees and diplomas I list on my CV:
  
  
  
  • University of Adelaide: Bachelor of Arts (1978), Diploma in Computing Science (1980). (750907E)
    
  • Australian National University: Bachelor of Letters (1984). (80M356)
    
  • Institute of Linguists: Diploma in Translation (French to English) (2003), Diploma in Translation (German to English) (2003).
    
  
  For ease of reference, I have put in my student numbers at the two universities concerned. Please feel free to use those numbers in making your enquiries. I will not threaten you with prosecution under imaginary laws (or even real ones).
  
  
• No number of years’ experience will make an incompetent person in any job into a competent person. A Vadney with 25 years’ experience is still a Vadney, and will still be vastly inferior to an average translator who qualified yesterday.
  
  
• The Vadney describes my academic career as “a bit difficult to swallow”. If you want to see a real example of an implausible “academic” career, check out this beauty from the Vadney’s ProZ.com CV, which I downloaded 2 August 2007 (the lies are too numerous to mention):
  

  Education
  

  
  State University of New York Albany, NY 1977 - 1979
  
  
  
  • B.A., Philology & Physiology
    
  • M.A., Philology & Psychology (Physiological)
    
  
  
  • Rutgers University Newark, NJ 1990 - 1991
    
    
    
    • Post-graduate Studies in Zoology
      
    
    
  • University of Medicine & Dentistry Newark, NJ 1990 - 1991
    
    
    
    • Post-graduate Studies in Pathology / Anatomy / Microbiology
      
    
    
  • City University of New York New York, NY 1986 - 1986
    
    
    
    • Doctoral Program, Biochemistry
      
    • Continuing Post-graduate Studies – Literary Theory & Criticism, Philology
      
    
    

  
  Continuing Education:
  

  
  
  • Harvard Medical School - Continuing Medical Education
    
  • Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
    
  • CDC Comprehensive and Updates - Tb/HIV/STDs
    
  • Johns Hopkins CME
    
  • UMDNJ CME
    
  • IKON Microsoft Systems Engineer & Software Applications
    
  • Novell System Administrator

  
  
• It is interesting to compare the above alleged educational career with the more compressed version from his campaign website:
  

  
  Universities: University of Maryland (liberal arts, psychology); State University of
  New York (philology, psychology); University College of London (London); Hunter
  College (molecular biology); City University of New York "CUNY" (biochemistry,
  philology); Rutgers University (biology, zoology, physiology); University of Medicine
  and Dentistry (pathology/anatomy and allied sciences). Continuing Education:
  Harvard School of Medicine (CME); Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (CME);
  CDC (certificate courses in STDs, TB and HIV); Microsoft Network Engineer and
  Novell Network Specialist training and MS Office Applications; applications training.
  New York State Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration, Judicial
  Campaign Ethics.
  

  
  Note that the list of institutions doesn’t match: University of Maryland, Hunter College and “University College of [sic!] London” (apparently he expects us to believe he attended a university whose name he can’t get right!) have been added. Also note the biggest joke of all: “New York State Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration, Judicial
  Campaign Ethics”! Apparently they forgot to teach him that lying about your credentials was not allowed.
  
  
• On reading the cute little aside “(Wait a minute! There are some amazing parallels between Benham and Rodney Dangerfield!)” I actually had to look up Rodney Dangerfield, but having done so, I think that having successfully relaunched his career in middle age is something for which he deserves respect, not ridicule.
  


• The Vadney has finally come out and said he was once elected a Fellow of the FRSA. Apparently, it didn’t occur to him that to keep his membership current, he was supposed to pay his dues every year. One might question the legality of even keeping the certificate under those circumstances.
  
  
• In the case of the IoL, the rules state specifically that the membership certificate must be returned if membership is discontinued. And the Vadney has admitted in many places (his “updated” CVs, for example, and this forum thread) that he is not a current member. And he still brags about having the certificate. Naughty, naughty!
  

Anyone for Green Herring?

There are red herrings...

Well, for once the Vadney has said something I would agree with: “Watch for Red Herrings with Internet Scoundrels”. Well, the “scoundrels” sounds a bit quaintly anachronistic, but then the Vadney appears to have no ambitions to be taken seriously.

Examples of red herrings to watch for would be:

(1) After being exposed as not having the credentials one has claimed, turning around and attacking the exposers, but never addressing the issue of the truth or falsity of one’s own claims.

(2) Accusing one’s exposers of defamation, and persisting with this accusation for weeks on end, without ever saying what it is that they have said that is alleged to be defamatory, or presenting one’s arguments as to why it supposedly isn’t true.

(3) Making all sorts of innuendos about alleged sexual orientations of and relations between one’s opponents.

(4) Persistently accusing one’s opponents of criminality, without ever giving the details or evidence.

(5) Rather than addressing the issue of the (undeniable) truth of the revelations against oneself, blustering about the means by which the information was obtained.

(6) Dismissing information as “inaccurate” on the basis of trivial details (such as reference to a BS degree instead of a BA), while never addressing the glaring issue (e.g. that one has claimed a non-existent MA degree). “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”—Matthew 7:3.

(7) Trying to link a very simple issue—the fact that one has been caught falsely claiming credentials—with an unrelated extravagant and frivolous lawsuit one has taken, and accusing one’s exposers of being in some sort of (unefined) “conspiracy” with the defendants in that suit.

(8) Publishing wild speculations about one’s exposers’ nationality, whereabouts, sources of wealth, etc., and drawing or suggesting even wilder conclusions of criminality, rather than, again, addressing the issue of the truth or falsity of the original statements that started the dispute.

Of course the Vadney has done all this and more. He has treated us to countless new posts, greater or lesser edits to existing posts, and attempts to comment on my blog, since 12 December 2007, without once mentioning the substance of the so-called defamation.

...and there are green herrings!

But I think the term “red herring” is not the most accurate for Vadney’s efforts. What we are dealing with here are rather “green herrings”: they are born of envy.

How else does one explain the following meandering drivel?

[...] Benham also claims to be a professinal translator, having various degrees, various diplomas, etc. The usual. A professional [!] translator myself, it beggars the imagination to think that Mr Benham can move about so much and still be a credible translator. Perhaps also, with all this movement either his translating business is extraordinarily good or he's independently wealthy but to be in so many places in such a narrow period of time is a bit incredible and still be able to make a living.

I quote my rates in euros, because I target the European market, but a quick conversion on XE.com shows that my advertised rates are about double the Vadney’s advertised rates. Not only that, until I came here to study, I was working at full capacity, whereas the Vadney only manages to get a trickle of work, despite his bogus qualifications and claimed quarter-century of experience. A few months ago, the Vadney announced on TranslatorsCafe.com that he was planning a European tour at the end of 2007. Apparently it never eventuated (for lack of money? or was it just another green herring to start with?), while here I am in Europe, living in a hotel.... Oh, and of course, I actually do have a recognized translation diploma or two, earned the hard way (by passing exams, not just putting some fabrication in my CV...).

And by the way, the vast majority of translators get their assignments and deliver their work by email; so it makes no difference where they are located, as long as there is Internet connectivity. And it happens that the cost of living is very low in Indonesia, and there is no income tax. So is it any wonder that I, working full-time at about double the Vadney’s rates, can afford to go on a study tour of Europe when he can’t?

Mr Vadney, if you want to be able to afford that European vacation, take some advice from me. Improve your skills, starting with your English spelling and grammar and moving on to elementary German; stop wasting your time and (eventually) money on frivolous lawsuits you can’t win; stop spending your time defaming your betters (yes! the word is carefully chosen) and start trying to build a career the slow but steady way. You’ve still got 7 or 8 years before standard retirement age, and look at me: I have built a successful career in about 4 years.

Finally, a pink herring

When the Vadney first started his grubby little blog, he used the pseudonym “BG”...while at the same time berating me for my alleged use of a pseudonym. Maybe like you, I wondered what the letters stood for. Then I noticed the email address from which originated the Vadney’s infantile attempts to comment on my blog: beaugars@.... Beau gars?? “Handsome young man”?? (And that’s a charitable translation....)

Judge for yourself.

Sorry, but it's interesting ... Expatriate Horne? Huh???

The tininess of the Vadney’s mind has just beeen illustrated yet again:

Sorry, but I can't resist posting a tidbit that is truly "extraordinary":
According to information from an unofficial source, Mr Scott Horne isn't even a 'real' Canadian living in Montréal but is an American expatriate. But why Canada? That's an interesting question but one for which we'll have to wait for an answer.

So let’s get this straight: Mr Horne may (or may not) be an American expatriate...and that’s “extraordinary”? There are over two hundred nationalities, and the possibility that some person may happen to have one of them is news? This is like the Vadney’s story that I had “dishonestly” given an Indonesian address when I was an Australian citizen.... I was actually living in Indonesia at the time, and made no representations about my citizenship. (I assume the Vadney was talking about my ProZ.com profile: there is no provision to include one’s citizenship or nationality there.)

We'll [sic!] go to the official sources for the facts.
But I'm really curious about my inquiries with the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol and am wondering what they're going to come up with now that we [sic!] have this curious bit of intelligence.

Did I hear the word “intelligence”? The Vadney and his imaginary friend(s) have acquired some intelligence? That would be very heartening! Vadney and friend(s), however, don’t seem to be doing putting this new-found intelligence to much use if they think government agencies are going to give them private details of someone else’s citizenship. Doesn’t the fact that they first tried to interest these agencies in Mr Horne several (with a promise to keep the eagerly-awaiting world informed of their response) months ago tell them anything?

Usually, expatriates find somewhere culturally stimulating like Paris or the like or somewhere exotic like Bali. The only real expatriates we [sic!] usually hear of going to Canada from the USA are draft-dodgers or criminals who are attempting to escape apprehension.

People have all sorts of reasons for their choice of residence. It is not for lowlife fraudulent would-be translators like the Vadney to speculate about the motives of real people. But draft-dodgers? Is the Vadney aware that the US abolished the draft in 1973? How old does he think Mr Horne was then?

Would that perhaps explain Mr Horne's aliases: Patrick S. Horne a.k.a. P. Scott Horne a.k.a. Scott Horne?

Aliases? Since when does choosing one or other of one’s given names as principal given name constitute using an alias? How would it even help to disguise one’s identity?

I happen to have some information from “unofficial sources” myself: After being banned from the IoL fora, a certain Harold W. Vadney III re-enrolled under the “alias” of “William”, and when William got banned, he re-enrolled under the “alias” of “HWV”. This despite having been told not to post any further by the moderator Dina even before his first banning.

Now on the subject of criminality: I will spare you the vadney’s meanderings on the subjuct, and merely remark that the Vadney still has yet to produce one skerrick of evidence of criminality on my part, on Mr Horne’s part or on the part of any of the other targets of his venom. Nor has he even denied the obvious: that he himself is up to his neck in fraud, harassment and perjury.

Would you buy a used car from this man?

The mind vomits. The Vadney doesn’t just beggar belief: he positively buggers it. First of all, we get this headline: “Back on Track ... Requiem for Benham and Horne”, which might be construed as a death threat, but in the post beneath it Vadney makes the following solemn pronouncement:

Unless something extraordinary develops, I shall try to avoid any further comment on Mr Richard Benham and Mr Scott Horne. What more can be said about them[?] Old news.

This resolve lasts all of 2 hours 36 minutes, until, under the headline “Credentials Inc. and DegreeChk”, we get a lot of pap about my alleged “fraud” and “breach of [Credentials Inc.’s] conditions of service” Has anything “extraordinary” developed in those two-and-a-half hours? Unless the Vadney did some thinking, which really would be extraordinary, nothing new has happened at all. This latest post contains no new (mis)information.

The Vadney does, however, issue a challenge of sorts:

[...] I would challenge Mr Benham to provide the documentation of how he complied with Credential Inc.'s terms of service in the following areas or, in the alternative, if he did not comply with these requirements, how he managed to obtain what he represents to be accurate, truthful information? How about it Mr Benham?

Apparently, it has not sunk in to the Vadney that, as I said last time he raised this issue, it is none of his business how I got the information. If he is right in his belief that I have breached some agreement with Credentials Inc., then that is a civil matter between them and me. If he thinks that information on his degrees should not have been released to me, then he should take it up with Credentials Inc., or SUNY, on whose behalf they were acting.

If on the other hand, the Vadney thinks I have done something criminal, let him take it up with the police. But he’d better make sure he brings along a spare copy of The Vadney Act, because they probably haven’t heard of it.

If the Vadney wants his challenges to be taken seriously, he would do well to answer the simple yes/no questions I put to him some time ago in my post “Open challenge to the Vadney”. Unlike his inane questions, there is actually some point to his answering mine. It will provide good practice for the forthcoming defamation case. No doubt the Vadney will face these or very similar questions under cross-examination. If he applies his mind (for want of a better word) to providing clear answers to these questions, taking into account that the true answers are objectively provable to the criminal degree of proof and that perjury can land him in the slammer, he might have second thoughts (for want of a better word) about his current self-destructive course.

The main thing to bear in mind here is that the Vadney’s pontifications and expatiations on how I got the information are a diversion: he knows he lied for years about his qualifications, claiming an MA he never had. He knows I know it too and can prove it. So he is trying to distract attention with irrelevant and unfounded allegations.

And as for his parting shot:

And then you wonder why Benham is being investigated from so many quarters?!?!

it’s beneath contempt. There is no evidence I am being seriously investigated by anyone serious. If you go to anyone in authority with an obvious fabrication against someone, of course they’ll say “We’ll look into it”, but that does not mean you have achieved anything or even been taken seriously. It’s just a stock response to shut you up. Noöne takes Vadneyesque allegations seriously. Very few take the Vadney seriously.

Little Mr Inadequate is shitting his pants now...!

 Background

I have been loath to publish too many entries, because, unless I just repeat myself, they detract attention away from the objective facts and arguments. So here’s a recapitulation of the objective facts.

(1) From at least as early as 2000, a charlatan wannabe translator, Harold William Vadney III, advertised himself on the Internet as a Master of Arts of SUNY at Albany, a Member of the Insitute of Linguists and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

(2) Harold William Vadney III was none of those things.

(3) In August 2007, I published, on the now defunct Network of Independent Linguists’ discussion forum, an exposé revealing the facts listed at (1) and (2) above.

(4) As the charlatan Vadney was also using these lies in his campaign for election as Town Justice in the hamlet of New Baltimore, New York, the Albany Times Union took an interest in the case, and published a story by one Scott Waldman, raising the matters referred to at (1) and (2) above, and some others.

(5) Since that time, the charlatan Harold William Vadney III has been waging a hate campaign of lies, distortions and irrelevant half-truths against me and anyone else he considers to have been involved in the exposure of his charlatanism.

There is ample evidence for (1) all over the web. Although Vadney changed his various CVs and profiles shortly after being exposed, there is nothing he can do about archived or cached copies of his puff pages. The evidence for (2) came from the organizations concerned; copies of the emails I received from them are in the zip-folder at <http://www.rbenham.com/Vadney/Press_Kit.zip>, along with a small selection of the Vadney’s puff pages.

Vadney has since disputed the contents of the emails from DegreeChk.com (agents for SUNY) and the IoL. The arguments he raises are typical of his dishonesty and desperation. He claims the IoL forgot about an exam he did way back in 1981. On the IoL’s own forum, he claims that he “sat the then IoL examinations in London in about 1981 and received the certificate 'Associate of the IoL' etc.” So much voluntary self-incrimination: “Associate” is a lower grade of affiliation than “Member”, and the Vadney consistently claimed the latter, either explicitly or by using the abbreviation MIL (Member of the Institute of Linguists) rather than AIL (Associate of the Institute of Linguists), which, by his own account, he just may have been entitled to for a period of one year at most. Similarly, he complains that DegreeChk.com gave me “inaccurate” information, but the only inaccuracy was that it said he had a Bachelor of Science degree rather than Bachelor of Arts—of no relevance to the undeniable fact that he lied by claiming a Master of Arts degree.

So far, the Vadney has not even thought up a plausible excuse for claiming to be a Fellow of the RSA.

The Vadney’s latest pseudo-legal posturings

In his latest blog entry, the Vadney tells us:

What Internet defamers do not seem to grasp is that (1) the defamed does not have to prove the falsity, the defamer has to prove the truth of the statements published, (2) that in a civil defamation lawsuit the presumption in most jurisdictions is that the statements are false and that the defendant must prove the truth of the statements, (3) that jurisdictions generally have established systems of so called "mutual assistance" in both criminal and civil matters. What this means is that a case can be filed in the US and a foreign jurisdiction will cooperate in the investigation phase, the prosecution phase, the enforcement/execution stage. (4) Most defamation (libel and slander) cases not only involve the actual defamation but also secondary counts associated with the defamation or resulting from the defamation. (5) When a case is brought, the defendant must defend against it whether right or wrong; that costs time and money. As a result, everyone loses until the judgment or jury verdict comes in.

Let’s look at this rant objectively.

(1), (2) In his typical puffed-up style, the Vadney makes the same point twice. With typical intellectual dishonesty, he begs the question by referring to the “defamed” and “defamer” rather than “plaintiff” and “defendant” in (1). (In this case, who is really the “defamed” and who the “defamer”? ) Why does the Vadney even raise this question of burden of proof? Because he is shitting his pants, that’s why! Why would you want to make an issue of the burden of proof if you were in the right?! Translation of (1) and (2): “I, the Vadney, alias Little Mr Inadequate, know that I’m dead wrong, but I’m hoping as a last resort that you won’t be able to prove it!’ Sorry, Haroldkins, there’s enough evidence to nail you on the criminal standard of proof, let alone the civil!

(3) Just random ravings. The Vadney hopes to frighten me with the prospect of some kind of international proceedings. No such luck. Besides, he glosses over the distinction between civil and criminal proceedings.

(4) So what?

(5) Again, this only requires translation from Vadneyese to show that it’s another desperate bluff: “I, Little Mr Inadequate, alias the Vadnikins, know I haven’t got a leg to stand on, but I can always threaten you with the trouble and expense of defending one of my famous vexatious and frivolous lawsuits.”

Vadney, Master Spy?

In earlier entries, Little Mr Inadequate regales us with stories like:

'Benham Spotters' have placed him in various locales but we need to know exactly where he is so we can keep the authorities informed ...

or

There are too many of us out there watching, waiting and ready to do our part in stopping scoundrels and cowards who misuse the Internet to perpetrate their malconduct.

Now why exactly would these “authorities” be interested in hearing from Little Mr Inadequate about my whereabouts? Does it not occur to Mr Inadequate that I show my (genuine) passport on request from the “authorities” when I travel, and that they have a much better idea of where I am than he does? (Actually, I did post my exact coördinates on ProZ.com; I have since moved a few hundred metres because accommodation is pretty tight around here at this time of year.)

But especially noteworthy is the implication that Little Mr Inadequate is the head of a network of spies...and wrongdoers like me have nowhere to hide. This sounds awfully like a threat to me, but I am not exactly quaking in my boots.

Puffery

One thing that has emerged remarkably consistently from Little Mr Inadequate’s rantings is that whatever he accuses others of applies to himself, not to them. So he has accused me of lying, fraud, defamation, criminality and even impotence. (I will forbear all reference to his allusions to homosexuality.) What does this say about him?

Well, one other term he likes to bandy about is “puffery”. This makes me think of some animals, which use inflatable sacs to make themselves look bigger to potential rivals or predators. This is exactly what Little Mr Inadequate does too. Note his consistent use of “we” and his habit of referring to himself in the third person. And don’t forget the network of spies he commands...in his own pathetic little imagination.

Footnote: One of Little Mr Inadequate’s recent outrages has been to refer to me as an “alleged "translator"” This is a clear slight to my professional competence. In the unlikely event that any real translator who reads this has any illusions about the Vadney’s competence, I suggest you go to ProZ.com and/or TranslatorsCafe.com and look at his terminology questions. Don’t bother looking for his answers: he is far to self-centred to think of helping anybody else—mercifully so, as it happens. One of his major triumphs was to ask (on ProZ.com’s KudoZ) about the meaning of the French preposition à (a question which I answered!). Admittedly, it was in a chemical/medical context, but it could have been answered by anyone with a high-school knowledge of chemistry, let alone the “clinical scientist” the Vadney claims to be. A total fraud.