Keith Gormèzano is practically on a first-name basis with security guards at a U.S. court at Sixth Avenue and Seneca Street. That's because every week, Gormèzano, [a Phinney Ridge neighborhood in Seattle resident] stops in to check on the case of his former employer, famed local [Madison Park resident] architect Stuart Silk http://www.stuartsilk.com [whose business is located across from the Erotic Bakery in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/neighbors/wallingford/scenes.html]. Silk has won several [9 AIA] awards for designing upscale homes for Seattle's rich and famous; on June 11, Silk filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, listing at least $5 million in debt to various people. [Keith's note: I also use the court's web site to download files and according to the latest information, his debts are in the 20 million dollar range.]
"It's all public information," says Gormèzano, who posts Silk's filings--which he gets for seven cents a page--on the web [at his free to join Website at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SNSCHAPTER11/]. But on Friday, September 26, Gormèzano didn't go to the clerk's office to check up on Silk's papers. He was there to file his own. Silk, you see, is now suing Gormèzano for meddling in the bankruptcy case, and Gormèzano had a brief to file in response. "We've been battling over the last couple of months, because [Silk] doesn't like the fact that I've been writing to his creditors," Gormèzano says.
Gormèzano--a late-40s guy [actually I think of myself as a impish latte 40s Peter Sellers double] with a dry wit, and hobbies like calling in junk cars to be towed, crusading against smoking in bus shelters, and inventing a fake entrepreneur history to see if millionaires' lists can be fooled into ranking him [which Forbes mentioned at http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2002/0930/400080_2.html], which he details on his personal website [at http://www.scn.org/~bb822/scandal.htm]-- has posted 99 documents to his website on Yahoo! groups [at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SNSCHAPTER11/]. He's used up 75 percent of his allotted 20,480 KB of space, posting things like court documents, copies of letters he's written to Silk's associates, plus amendments he's proposed [that] Silk should make to his financial disclosures. [Some of those amendments have resulted in Silk filing amended financial reports which makes you wonder that maybe, I am not that far off.]
Why is Gormèzano going to so much trouble? First of all, he considers himself a whistleblower, doing his part to curb corporate abuse by monitoring Silk's bankruptcy filings. He wishes Enron's accountants had done something like this, early on. "We don't like multimillionaires--like Stuart--[as well as debtors who don't act in good faith and abuse the system by hiding behind a bankruptcy filing] who don't follow the rules," Gormèzano says. Gormèzano, whose status as a former employee [operations and office manager] who kept Silk's books gives him plenty of insight into the architect's finances, has offered his take on Silk's money situation to Silk's numerous creditors. At least five have called him for more information, he says. (Silk, for his part, says his filings are accurate. "I made a mistake [concerning debt], and I'm trying to desperately move on with my life. Keith is preventing me from doing that.") [Makes you wonder why, doesn't it?]
The second reason for keeping such a close eye on the bankruptcy case is that Gormèzano claims Silk owes him money. Gormèzano--listed as a creditor in the case--says he has a pending labor claim against Silk, filed after his job ended in February. He says he blew the whistle http://www.internalmemo.com/memos/memodetails.php?memo_id=1672 on what he deemed discriminatory hiring practices--he claims Silk passed over a black woman in favor of a white man for a marketing position--and lost his job as a result. [Keith: Actually, I opposed his laying off two employees due to their gender at that time in February 2003.] Silk however, bristles at the allegations, saying he's never discriminated at his firm. "I hire people based on ability," Silk says. Moreover, Silk says, the alleged discrimination situation happened over a year ago, and Gormèzano quit in February [Keith: I did not quit, I was fired otherwise I would not have gotten unemployment as you are not allowed to get it if you quit.] "He called me a sociopath in an e-mail, and said he was going to look for work elsewhere," Silk says. "Now he wants $3.5 million from me. [Was that because you named me as a creditor?] He's a very bitter, very disgruntled man." [Gee, I wonder why?]
[A third reason is to ensure that Silk accurately reports his finances so that the estate of the bankrupt person be enhanced or preserved and the likelihood of the Chapter 11 filing be successful as only 15% are. As a result of Gormèzano's activities, court records show that Silk's estate have increased $1,429,000 in supplemental filings. According to Gormèzano, Silk neglected to tell one creditor about a $900,000 option he had on his office building, did not list the value of his copyrighted house plans for his clients in his bankruptcy filing that Gormèzano says is worth at least $10,000,000, ordered him to destroy financial documents related to the filing to make himself look better, asked for information about how to delete e-mail permanently and threatened Gormèzano with loss of his employment when he warned him of the dangers of deleting e-mail when he was in litigation, and forged his wife's signature on a real estate document that required her to be present and that her signature be notarized and Silk and as far as Gormèzano knew did not have power of attorney for her.]
Silk, via his attorneys, sent Gormèzano a cease-and-desist letter on August 11, asking him to quit writing letters and posting the bankruptcy documents on his website. "You have been taking a number of actions that are interfering with and disrupting the Bankruptcy Case and Mr. Silk's ability to make a living," the letter said. "All I want him to do is stop. I just want him to stop," Silk says.
[Actually, I sent back a rebuttal letter http://www.geocities.com/snschapter11/kg2.doc and offered to discuss the issues. I never heard anything from them except a lawsuit, a nice mature response.]
But Gormèzano didn't stop. So on August 29, Silk filed a suit against Gormèzano, asking for an injection to end the website and Gormèzano's correspondence--which Silk says went out to at least 1,000 people, including former and current clients, friends, suppliers, contractors, and even members of boards and a private club that Silk is part of. "The basic belief by Stuart is Keith [Gormèzano] is a disgruntled former employee," explains Silk's attorney, Brian Meenaghan.
"You can't prohibit someone from publishing court documents on a website, but... bankruptcy prohibits creditors and other individuals from harassing a debtor," Meenaghan explains. Silk agrees: "The guy is a complete nutcase. The suit we filed is to stop him from trying to ruin my reputation."
[So if it is OK to publish court documents on the Web site, why is Silk trying to shut it down? Maybe you better visit it before it disappears like foreign nationals from unpopular places in this country.]
Gormèzano doesn't seem fazed by the suit, and he plans to--surprise!--represent himself. Both sides will meet in court on October 9. [I wonder what the ACLU has to say about this?]
You can read my lawsuit against him detailing 25 causes of action and three reasons why his alleged debt to me should not be discharged at my Web site or at
Keith "No-No-Boy" Gormèzano
6561 Phinney Ave N. #217
Seattle, WA
98103-5255
(206) 789-8328
(206) 350-2347 Fax
mailto:bb822@scn.org