Friday, February 20, 2009

Terry Hallman pumping the internet with no independent verification available to back up his claims of success

Terry Hallman is a prolific writer on the Internet as can be seen if you do a google search on his name and Ukraine.

Mr Hallman comments on anything and everything he can in order to get his name printed and searchable on the Internet. At first glance you would be forgiven into thinking this guy is out there seriously getting involved, but if you take time to do some independent research and look further into his postings you soon realise that much of what he has to say is highly questionable and exaggerated self-promotion. He draws upon research and reports of others published on the Internet and in doing so seeks to mislead by associating his name with their work and indirectly with their organisation.

Mr Hallman and his associates are pushing a new ism called Capitalist-Socialism pushing the idea of making profit for poverty (or as we prefer to refer to it as making profit from poverty). Capitalist-Socialism heavily draws on ideas surrounding the benefits of microfinancing.

Microfinancing is not new it has been around for sometime. What Terry Hallman falsely claims is that he was the pioneer of this new "ism". But research shows this is far from the truth.

All of Mr Hallman's claimed achievements such as the Tomsk and Crimean projects are not independently verifiable or backed by anyone other then what he and his associates write themselves. Most of the information available is cross referenced to many of his numerous positing on the Internet and his web site p-ced.com and profitfrompovety.com. A circle of cross references.


There are no independent referees that can be called upon to verify his claims, It is this lack of independent verification along with his concerns about his "company" that started to alert us that something was not right.

The Tomsk project

We looked into the Tomsk project which Mr Hallman claimed to be involved in and was a huge success. When you read the summary on his web page you begin to notice what's missing rather then what is there. There is no mention exactly of Mr Hallman or his companies role in the project. In fact if you search for Terry Hallman and the Tomsk project there is no mention of Terry Hallman or P-CED anywhere other then on his posts, which we thought was strange. What position did Terry Hallman have with this project and how is it that there is no independent information backing up his involvement with the project.

If you follow the links published you end up with a non-existent web site or information about Tomsk but nothing about Terry Hallman and the project itself.

We searched the USAID database and again could not find any mention of Mr Hallman or his company on the USAID site. You would think that such a successful and important project would have a write up and at least appear on the USAID annual reports. Nothing was found. We wrote to USAID asking for verification and confirmation as to Mr Hallman's association with USAID. We received a letter on October 6, 2006 stating that the USAID office had no knowledge of Terry Hallman or his company.

The Crimean project

Similar experience with the Crimean project. Again no independent referees or information to confirm the claimed successes of this project.

What we did discover was that the Crimean partners, who Mr Hallman required in order to secure any funding, whilst interested in the project did not want to work with Mr Hallman who was trying to secure a managerial position over the project. The project never got off the ground, It never developed beyond concept stage. There was no detailed business plan, no administration, no management or infrastructure or any financing of the project. Having been denied a job or support Mr Hallman then sort to claim a project commission fee of US$15,000 for his unsolicited work in drafting the concept paper. When this payment, which was equivalent to three years average annual salary in Ukraine, was refused Mr Hallman acted to exercised his "intellectual property rights" and withdraw the project from further consideration. Terry Hallman claimed that the reason for the withdrawal was due to corruption associated with his allocated Crimean partner. Whilst the allegation of corruption is plausible there is no evidence available that backup or supports Mr Hallman's claims of corruption other then his own statements.

The project most defiantly was not a success and never received funding or approval from USAID (see above).

P-CED

Mr Hallman has been living in Ukraine since 2002 apart from some time he spent in London (he was later excluded and denied entry into the United Kingdom) and in Prague around 2003-2004 he returned to Ukraine with limited funding and registered a company in Kharkiv (No: 33607852). His company is nothing more then a computer, a business card and a rubber stamp. P-CED has not office, no assets and no capital investments in Ukraine. Mr Hallman lives in a $180 apartment in Kharkiv.

Terry Hallman had previously registered a company "People-Cantered Economic Development Limited (P-CED) whilst he was living in London. (This company was deregistered in 2005 following Mr Hallman's exclusion from the United Kingdom).

In May 2005 Mr Jeff Mowatt a business associate of Mr Hallman registered a new company People-Centered Economic Development Limited UK at the same address as Mr Hallman's deregistered company was listed.


Director of International Economic Development Company in Ukraine

Mr Hallman presents himself as a founding director of an international economic development company based in Ukraine. Anyone reading this statement would at first form the impression that Mr Hallman was someone of considerable experience and success in business but this is far from the truth or the full picture.

When about his company and its registration, offices and achievements Mr Hallman with the support of Mr Jeff Mowatt retaliated with a campaign of abuse, lies and misinformation attacking those that asked questions challenging the claims and the veracity being made. The aim of this attack is two fold, first it was to try and deflect attention away from the questions asked and issues surrounding the activities of Mr Hallman and his company, second it was to try and dis-encourage any person from asking questions publicly.

If the questions continued, as we and others, who were independent, continued to ask questions on for-ua.com pubkic forum, Mr Hallman and his associates began a campaign abuse by falsely claiming that the questions asked are personal and part of a campaign of hate towards Mr Hallman himself. The reaction to this ongoing abuse and his refusal to answer questions aksed creates a flame with each parting becoming embroiled in an online argument. There aim of this is to have them gang up and then seek to have the person asking the questions banned from speaking out, backup by none other then the group itself. This is exactly what happened on the For-ua.com site where Terry Hallman, Jeff Mowatt, Philip Giddings, Tom and Peter Crosby (who was mislead into supporting Mr Hallman) went on the attack. More on this issue later. anyone who questioned Mr Hallman was subjected to this gang abuse which naturally discouraged anyone from asking questions. Its a form of censorship and the questions that were originally asked go unanswered and they avoid open scrutiny and accountability that otherwise would have exposed them for what they are.

Summary

We could find no means of independent verification of Mr Hallman or his company claims of success. We know that his company is nothing much more then a computer, a business card and a rubber stamp. It has no assets, no offices and no capital investments in Ukraine. Mr Hallman has been in Ukraine since 2002 and has had no success in establishing his business. Mr Hallman continues to pump the Internet with stories and articles about his political activities and ideas in the hope that he can create a favourable impression. His specious claims of being able to secure millions of dollars in funding are unsupported. Most of what he has claimed is exaggerated and embellished beyond belief.

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