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Unconvincing assumption of responsibility for the latest hoax
Is Joey Skaggs maybe saving somebody's skin
It is unusual that the expert of the Josef Stefan Institute is involved again
Dnevnik Online, by Brane Salamon and Domen Caharijas,
March 1, 2001 LJUBLJANA, 1. - While we wait for the self-proclaimed world computer champion to appear in public, the case of hoaxing Slovenes, scientists, state offices and, not the least, the President of the state opens new questions. Did the American cross the line? We now know everything about the media joker Joey Skaggs who is supposedly behind the hoax about the European and world computer championship, where Matjaz Rogelj was supposed to have won. We could be satisfied that the case is solved until the "champion" returns to fatherland, but the unusual show of the American joker can be the starting point of certain doubts. In his radio interview we heard that he was supposed to have been in Brazil at the time of the championship, that he was supposed to have held several lectures there, which is supposed to be evident from his web site. But there is nothing about his visit to Brazil on his web pages (www.joeyskaggs.com). In newspapers from Rio de Janeiro nothing is to be found about Joey Skaggs. Is his statement that "he was in Brazil" another hoax, though even hoaxes should have a limit? Skaggs started his media achievements in 1966 and until now all have been logical. He launched a story that was either a lie or at least a hoax and waited for the response of the media. The essence of the idea is that the result was obvious and quick and that a happening carried out in reasonable time hit upon the essence. Only the hoax about unethical genetic research that he took on in Slovene cooperation with Miso Alkalaj lasted longer than all other Skaggs actions, from November 1997 to February 1998. The question is whether Joey Skaggs would be interested in a performance that would take years, while he would not know of its result which is essential to him. Skaggs carries out his performance, and if it succeeds, it is all right, otherwise he starts another. If he had truly carried out the hoax with the European computer championship years ago and now repeated it with the world championship, this would certainly not be in the spirit of Skaggs' previous hoaxes. The hoax that took too long With such a long hoax that supposedly lasted from the European until the world computer championship, many doubts come to mind regarding the involvement of Joey Skaggs who was supposed to be collaborating with Miso Alkalaj and the alleged world champion. Skaggs carefully prepares for all his actions and during all this time he would have undoubtedly known that his new "world champion" had received substantial funds at the expense of the hoax. The described global attempt where IBM and others were to be challenged, would in accordance with the theory of a global plot have been set up differently, to achieve global response. CNN, which was mentioned so many times and other global media would have certainly reported on such an achievement if the "world champion" had been an American, who would have challenged Russian chess players and of course would have lost. This would have been more interesting for the world and Americans, not some world champion from Slovenia, from the country that Americans do not mention even in the most important matters or even mistake it for Slovakia. So is this a Skaggs' idea at all? Again the web page The answer to many questions may be on the web pages of the now infamous SAT 5 Institute from New York that is supposed to be behind the whole affair. Skaggs usually did not undertake web hoaxes, and in the two or three hoaxes where he used the potential of web media he did not allow for shoddiness on these pages. He had always covered up the information about the construction of the pages since nobody is interested in the time of updates, location and similar. Only in the case of the biogenetic hoax of a few years ago and in the case of the present world championship the pages were constructed in the equally "shoddy" way, with a visible date and local Slovene time, with details of location of disks and page protection. Both pages have similar grammatical characteristics in English language. Apart from the broken links already mentioned numerous times, it now also seems evident that the pages were set up on a computer in Pittsburgh. Skaggs had always taken care of obvious details and would not have exposed the matter in such a way, but had expected a detailed analysis of the media. In this case no analysis was necessary. Is it possible that Skaggs was asked to save the project of the hoax that could have become a fraud? The controversial Miso Alkalaj According to the statements of Skaggs himself, Miso Alkalaj of the Jozef Stefan Institute form Ljubljana is behind it all. In the first hoax with collaboration of Joey Skaggs he had exposed to ridicule the institute in which he is employed. At that time Miso Alkalaj lay low for a couple of days and then in collaboration with the leadership of the Institute explained his role in "control" of the media and journalists. Is IJS again involved in hoaxes and "control"? While explaining this latest hoax Joey Skaggs said that he had met Matjaz Rogelj at IJS; but people at the institute claim that Skaggs was never officially there, and neither was Matjaz Rogelj, who "did business" with the Institute only in writing when he had applied for scholarship. Is the Institute so open that American media jokers can walk freely throughout this eminent institution? The director of the Institute Vito Turk says that to his knowledge Joey Skaggs had never stepped over the threshold of their institute (Miso Alkalaj maintains the same). Also he knows nothing about the involvement of Miso Alkalaj in this hoax, though he knows that he was involved in "genetic hens" three years ago. "I condemn hoaxes in general, and if criminal actions are involved, official organs must do their job. If Miso Alkalaj is truly behind this hoax, he should answer for it," says Vito Turk and adds that he is angry because the name of the institute is being mentioned in connection with hoaxes. "I agree that Alkalaj is damaging the name of the Institute if he is involved in the hoax. It is true that I had tried to call him on Monday, but I could not reach him. If he is involved in any way, the persons responsible will find him," says the director of IJS. He also adds that IJS does not need this kind of "fame." "They have even made a fool out of president Kucan, which merits condemnation and is indecent. I think that Rogelj deserves a lesson, for the method itself," concluded Vito Turk. Miso Alkalaj is known for the still not completely resolved case of the purchase of a supercomputer, where several millions of dollars were wasted. He had cleverly explained his role in the transfer of the first Slovene web directory Matkurja into the hands of the private company Eon, which now "manages" the web directory and charges advertising on it. Alkalaj is above all known as a writer who had written on many subjects and had always elicited great interest of the public. He considers himself an anarchist, as he had said in an interview Two media hoaxes in which Slovenia and directly the IJS are now involved, must be too much and the media hoaxer would not afford them. Especially not if the president of the country is mentioned and large sums of money are involved. The alleged world champion is certainly guilty, but not for all of it. Rogelj faces up to eight years of prison "In the case of Matjaz Rogelj there is suspicion of a punishable act of fraud at the cost of the Ministry of Education and Sports, in accordance with the article 217 of the Slovene penal code, second paragraph, since the sum involved is supposed to exceed 55.000 German marks. For such a criminal act the maximum sentence is eight years of prison. It must also be stressed that the suspicion of the same criminal act remains even if Matjaz Rogelj returns the money. If the money were returned, this would be considered as an extenuating circumstance in the passing of the sentence. Of course the court must prove that he had the intent to defraud from the very beginning. Since he had already taken the money, this can not be considered as an attempted criminal act. Due to the large sum involved any alternative procedure is out of the question. The office of the prosecutor expects that the police will act in this case and investigate the matter. It is too early to say whether this is the case of two criminal acts or a case of a continued act of fraud. Of course, criminal acts will first have to be proved," told us Franc Mazi, the assistant to the general state prosecutor says that if a case of fraud is proven against Rogelj, sanctions also await him at the Faculty of law. We have also found out that Matjaz Rogelj supposedly also "hoaxed" the company Sibon of Domzale two years ago. The company needed a computer server and Rogelj supposedly offered to procure it. With the calling card of the Domzale company he supposedly appeared at a Ljubljana company where he was supposed to buy a PC for approximately 130.000 tolars, and then supposedly sold it as a server to Sibon for ten times more. The matter was later settled in court Related articles: Matjaz Rogelj je o_itno prevaral tudi prevaranta (Dnevnik, 28.2.2001) Copyright Dnevnik, 1998, 1999, 2000 (C)
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