Did ANSI Hire A Conspiracy Theorist to Harass Oxebridge?

OK, hold onto your tinfoil hats for this one, but certificate mill operator Daryl Guberman is tripling down on his claim that the leaders of the ANSI Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to TC 176 have hired him to “investigate” both myself and Oxebridge. And apparently by “investigate,” he means falsely accusing me of various crimes, of supporting terrorism, of fleeing the United States, and various other bizarre charges.

TC 176 is the official body that authors ISO 9001, and Guberman claims that both the former Chair of the US TAG, Alka Jarvis, and the current Chair, Paul Palmes, have signed a letter authorizing him to conduct his campaign of increasingly illegal harassment activities.

In the past, Oxebridge reported on controversies surrounding both Jarvis and Palmes, including how Palmes provided misleading information on his official Chair nomination form and padded his resume to get the position, and how Jarvis hid the fact that she was co-authoring a book on ISO 9001 with Palmes from the membership who had to vote for him. Some TAG 176 members told me that had they known Jarvis and Palmes were working on a book, they might not have voted for him.

So it’s safe to say that neither Palmes nor Jarvis are fans of Oxebridge, but it would be a fantastic stretch to imagine they hired someone to carry out some bizarre, illegal revenge plot, much less Guberman, an unaccredited certificate mill operator who accuses ASQ, IAF, ANAB and ISO of all supporting terrorism. But nevertheless, this is what Guberman is claiming on his YouTube channel: in two recent videos, Guberman separately claims that first Palmes hired him, and later that Jarvis did the same, to investigate me for defamation against them. In both videos, Guberman holds up an official-looking piece of paper that features the name US TAG TO ISO TC 176 in the header, and which features a number of signatures, but none of which can be clearly seen. Guberman then goes on to rail against not only myself, but Randy Dougherty of ANAB, the IAF and a host of others, doing so while simultaneously attaching Palmes’ and Jarvis’ names to his rants.

This isn’t the first time Guberman has alleged he is working for Palmes and Jarvis. Previously, he and his colleague Donald Norman LaBelle filed over 50 fraudulent Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices in an attempt to get the Oxebridge site taken off the internet. Ignoring the fact that that’s not how the internet works, Guberman and LaBelle essentially “scraped” the Oxebridge website for every graphic or illustration used, and then filed DMCA notices claiming — falsely — that they either created the images or owned them. Two articles featured the photos of Palmes and Jarvis, and so Guberman and LaBelle alleged they were hired as the official legal representatives of Palmes and Jarvis for the purposes of filing the DMCA notices, demanding their photos be removed. This is illegal for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that filing fraudulent DMCA notices is a violation of US Federal law, but also because it meant that Guberman and LaBelle were impersonating the attorneys of Palmes and Jarvis. Since the DMCA notices are filed under penalty of perjury, they also perjured themselves. A single false DMCA notice can result in a $25,000 hit, and — as I said — Guberman filed about 50 of them, meaning he could wind up paying $1.25 million. If Palmes are Jarvis were involved, then they would share that penalty.

But while it’s unlikely that Palmes and Jarvis were even aware of Guberman claiming to be their legal representative, it gets weird because after they were notified, they not only didn’t correct the record, they appear to have engaged with Guberman further. I sent notices to both Palmes and Jarvis requesting they sent my attorney a simple note indicating they had not hired Guberman or LaBelle for the filing of DMCA notices, and both of the two TAG leaders refused to comply. This went on for months.

Stranger still is this email I received from ASQ Fellow Duke Okes, who wrote a content-free email to me with the subject line “Guberman 1, Paris(ite) 0,” after Guberman posted a video calling me a “parisite.” This shows that Okes is not only monitoring Guberman’s anti-Oxebridge content, but supporting it, even while Guberman accuses Okes of essentially working to foment terrorism by supporting Iran and North Korea.

Then, Guberman ran videos claiming he had spoken to both Palmes and Jarvis on the phone. This time Anne Caldas of ANSI was notified, along with Jarvis and Palmes, asking — again — for someone to come out and clear up the record. Once again, they refused. (The reason ANSI is involved is that ANSI manages the US TAG and accredits their activities, and any complaints against the TAG are handled through ANSI’s procedures.)

Now, as Guberman takes videos of himself showing what appears to be an official ANSI document, things get even more complicated. ANSI’s legal team has been dragged into the mix, asking them to investigate. I’m showing a lot of restraint here, since I already have enough evidence to subpoena the lot of them and launch a lawsuit, but since I’m still convinced Jarvis and Palmes never actually signed anything — since doing so would expose them to potential criminal charges and fines — I’m hoping ANSI clears this up once and for all. I’ll update when I hear something back.

Remember, if you think this is as insane as I do, you can donate to the ISO 9001 Users Legal Fund and help Oxebridge fight back against these things.