Smith's School of English in Japan

[senseiman]

Guys! Has Mark Smith or anyone illegally accessed anyone's internet accounts? Pretexting or other technique? I know in Japan that's a serious criminal offense. You should report to authorities about it. But Mark Smith needs to go down and deserves to be in jail anyway.

Does he still have legal problems in Australia like before? I'm attempting to comb through and find all the criminal illegalities.

Scotty, how many times do you know of has Mark Smith sent threatening people to intimidate them? On the other side of the issue when Mark was assaulted were the people who did that arrested? As a legal professional I advise you to keep that quiet about that as it seems you have knowledge that's incriminating.

[Scotty]

Hi Senseiman,

Interesting choice of Avatar by the way. Any particular reason why that photo appealed to you?

In the short time that I was there, Mark Smith 'sent' persons to

a. James Conways school to 'take photos'. (he showed me the photos)
b. Larry King had a 'P.I.' who was following him around and took photos to try to catch him 'cheating'. (he showed me the photos).
c. My apartment in Morinomiya on Feb 15th at 2 pm.

That was in a ten month period only.

Apart from that, he sold a 'friends of Smith' Visa to a school owner in Fukushima. He sold it via email as "William Wiseman".

I've kept that paperwork too.

[Scotty]

Smith's School of English Japan

Ladies and Gentlemen.

Mark Smith is still working very hard to get this thread off and informing people of his business 'activities'.

I'm glad to say that we are still here and keeping those people that need to be informed, informed.

If you invest money and time with any of Mark Smith's "products", then 'cover thy butt' first.


He'll not rest til this thread is down. But happy to say that we've been informing potential 'customers' through this site and through Bearcats site as well.

[Scotty]

Dear Readers

Just some People Who Have Dealt With Smith's


This is a simple list and simple description of people etc who were/are affiliated with the issues of Smith, either directly or indirectly. Use this as needed as a reference for information mentioned in previous entries and those to come. Email contacts for these people can be requested by sending email to me to avoid spammers picking up their addresses.



Larry King

Former member of Smith. Bought a master franchise scheme from Smith in the Tokyo area (meaning he could sell rights to franchises to others in that area) and started with Smith around the same time as Scott Spargo (Late Spring/early summer). Followed litigation against Smith for breaches of the agreements made with Smith (involving Smith taking sales and sales leads from him). Awarded approximately $50,000 dollars. Larry now runs his own school in Tokyo called Larry King's School of English.

Larry King
Odyssey International, LLC
81-042-253-7882
(EMAIL AVAILABLE ON REQUEST)

__________________________________________________ __________________________


Scott Spargo:

Ex manager of Smith who lasted just shy of a year with Smith. Has a plethora of information about Smith for him time with Smith. Was a member of Smith's mentoree program called "Friends of Smith" and one of the few members who were not a franchisee. Even after years of being out from Smith's he is still trying to collect from Smith the money lost while with him. Ask him about what Smith did to him around the time of his exiting the group. His testimony of that occurence may appear on here as an entry at a later date. Scott helped to confirm aspects of Smith's past covered in the Who is Mark John Smith entry.

Scott also has posted frequently on many forums and thread that readers will be able to see at a later date on here.


__________________________________________________ _______________________

Paul Hackshaw:

Paul is a teacher at a University in the Kyoto area and is currently working on his Phd in Linguistics through the University of Birmingham, England. He is a member of JALT and known on many EFL forums in Japan as Paulh.

Paul has been a staunch supporter and go between for many people who were involved with the group (Paul linked me and Scott for example). Paul is also a moderator on ELT News. He was one of the first to expose Smith about his curriculum. Paul has actually met Smith many many years ago and can vouch for the depths of Smith's snake oil salesmanship. Paul has also contributed to explanations of the poor quality of Smith's curriculum and laughable training.

The Teaching in Japan Page: Paul's Brief Bio

ELT News Message Board - Index



__________________________________________________ ________________________

Miles Zonkin:

Ex partner/member of Smith's group. Even still Smith owes him money. Makes no bones about telling someone his feelings or history concerning Smith and can detail about the time Smith was put in the hospital by some guys he bilked and refused to pay. He can also tell you about other aspects of Smith's early days. Miles also helped to contribute information concerning Mark Smith's past in the Who is Mark John Smith entry.



__________________________________________________ ________________________

Donovan Reimer:

The right hand man of Smith for many years up until his leaving and Scott's taking over of the same in the summer of 2004. Don knows a tremendous amount of information about Smith, but is selective about who he gives it to. He too was exploited and used by Mark Smith and has lost money to him. Don is also working with Larry's Lawyer Jiri. Don, unlike other managers, was given the title of CEO for a time with Smith and as well was one of Smith's "school brokers".

Don was usually sent to handle "issues" of franchisees or run schools that were abandoned or wouldn't sell. Ebie School was one such example in Osaka. Personally, I do not like Donovan and I keep my correspondence with him to a minimum. Scott is more friendly and communicative with him than I am. My reason for this is that during Don's time with Smith, he was just as guilty as Smith for some of the abuses and exploitation and coersion of others visited upon people. He as well still tries to maintain a small line of communication directly with Smith and for this I do not entrust him 100% with some information(such as that of people who have contacted me under promises that Smith will not know that they are communicating with me for the purposes of this blog and getting information out to the public. Some of those people I've not mentioned with Scott either. Exiting Smith has a way of making folks less trustworthy of others as I hope readers will come to understand.




__________________________________________________ ________________________

Mark McBennet:

Essentially, he runs ELT New's Forums etc. One of the few moderators to have let stand (with editing and a locking) a thread inwhich he cites Smith having threatened him over a forum thread concerning him and his group. Evidence of the threat can as well be seen in said thread.
(EMAIL AVAILABLE ON REQUEST)

Thread in question:
ELT News Message Board - Index


__________________________________________________ ________________________

Ben Pittman:

A member of Smith's from 06/02 to 01/04. Now an ex member. Can tell you his negativer dealings with Smith as well.

(EMAIL AVAILABLE ON REQUEST)
__________________________________________________ _________________________

Clint Wilson:

He and his wife were looking into buying a Smith's School that was for sale (November 2004). They contacted me after seeing information shown in the net about Smith on a forum. After getting a small amount of what is shown on this blog, and knowing the right questions to ask Mark Smith, they realized they had almost wasted alot of money. I have their email correspondences from Smith (theirs and Smiths). They of course can tell you how Smith easily takes people on while playing on their ignorance and trust of what Mark says to them.

[Scotty]

Smith's School of English Japan


Mark Smith <mark@sse-franchise.com> wrote:

Scotty,

I just read through this again and it is still agreeable. I have kept a large pice of actual teaching work at Kyobashi under part time teachers so as to be able to plug you in when you get here.

I have also reassigned Donovan back into the Kyobashi environmet as in his capacity as CEO he has lots you can learn in respect to the day to day of the business. Morimoiya and Senri Yama schools were good management opportunities but they both sold and so we will need to look at other projects you can sink you teeth into as well as Kyobashi.

I am also thinking of researching the dive profession at a little more serious level. The Japanese are keen divers and love Australia but from my vantage point I see very little in the way of serious effort going into capturing this market. In fact the diving industry in general seems to be run by Divers not business men. If so there is business in there. As we both share an interest in diving that may also be worth a research project and the building of a business model as part of the training within the mentorship.

OK see you soon.

Mark.

---------------------------------------------------------------
On 24, 2003, at 08:20 AM, Scott wrote:
>
Dear Mark,
> >
Hope the family and the business are travelling well. On the weekend just got to the 61dives, was on a liveaboard for 3days, great experience and the most testing conditions yet to date with current.

Dived to 41 metres on the "St Paul" wreck off the coast of Moreton island. Almost lost two people in the current who couldn't make it back to the deco bar. Only the instructor and i got back to the ship, then back on deck, he promptly spewed everywhere and went to bed with a migraine. Seadog that he is....Was diving also with a xxx captain who motivated me by his conversation that i dont' want to be in the same position as him. Almost broke my hand as well, with a rachet at the back of the boat, yet all in all a good experience. Reference the written/verbal contract with the mentorship program, are we still
with the version below?

Hope all is well, scotty




Mark Smith wrote:

Hi Scotty,

Great to catch up on the telephone tonight. Glad to hear the diving is going well. Don't worry it will get a little more serious as he Master Course starts up.

They tell me the master is the one course which breaks the back of the study. From there on it's plain sailing and those mandatory 100 tanks till you called a licensed instructor.
> >
> >
I must say I am glad to see the approach you are taking to the business in Japan. I will hereafter outline our discussion.

1. You will arrive in June 2003. We can be a flexible on the start up within reason.

2. You will enter into a mentorship program run by myself. The focus of the mentorship program will be business management.

3. You will employ the skills taught on the mentorship program within a practical environment. This environment will be the Kyobashi head office school. You will take on the Profit Share Teachers role. This role requires the leading of the head office teaching team. Main concerns are to the marketing and supply of a quality product. Kyobashi will be a perfect enclosed and safe environment to test out your skills and make some money for yourself and the company. To increase the turnover at Kyobashi will be to increase your income. Help and support will never be further than the corner office away.

4. The mentorship program tied to the Kyobashi head office PST agreement will place you at the hub of the company and it's information. It is agreed for now that we do not know where this information and the opportunities it will provide will take you.
This company and it's subsidiaries grow too fast to focus on any one positionfor your future today. In other words, get the skills, get comfortable, look around and decide.

5. The price for the mentorship program will be JPY1,000,000. This will be paid upon agreement to go ahead. Mutual commitment. I must commit my schedule and path the way to your entry in Kyobashi. In return I ask you to commit with your payment. We are bound to go ahead together from then on.

Thats about it.

Please reply by return email to confirm or amend and we will draft
up an agreement, proceed to payment and then look forward to June.

Thank you and kind regards.
Mark Smith.

[Scotty]

Smith's School of English Japan

Dear Mark Smith,

As you can see, I am still here and waiting for my promised (by contract) product, (2,600,000yen).


I will not give up. That is a lot of time and money I invested in you and your company, Smiths School of English Japan.


I will continue until you get honest, or provide what you promised.

Methinks, the latter will come first.

[smithwatch]

Then explain why you don't hold access to the Smithwatch account that, guess what, -still- remains? Check the membership on the free-esl forums there.
This happened after our fallout and you shut me out. You then copied all the information from my work at Free ESL then put it in your work while stealing all the credit from me. To make the matter worse you locked me out of the nanobit site by creating the account of 'Smithwatch' so I (the real Smithwatch) could not get the account that rightfully belongs to me. You are being the fake Smithwatch.

Or even better, those interested can contact Henry on free-esl... you know, the owner of it. He can verify who has the account.
He already responded (see earlier comment). He's tired of you and your disinformation.

Better yet, anyone can look on the current Smithwatch website at the archived articles from the old blog PLUS the comments by others. I wonder what the moderators here would think to know that the current fake Smithwatch's IP address found in comments AND email address do not match that of the IP address of the Smithwatch from the old blog?
We all know that IP addresses don't mean anything these days. Just more disinformation.

Better yet, the email address for the creator of the old blog and the contact email address for the admin on the Smithwatch site are the same, kid. How do you explain that one away?
No, it's my email and you stole it from me when I was stupid enough to trust you with my things, including my password. The email is JapanWATCH, very similar to SmithWATCH and nothing to do with Bearcat. Everyone can see how you are lying about this as it's more of your disinformation. You keep pretending to be me. We have established that you are being the fake.

Or anyone can contact the moderator known as The One on gaijinpot.com to confirm that multiple aliases have been banned for pulling the same thing you are doing here?
Come on, why would he waste his time with you? Everyone knows the real truth.

How about a list of IP addresses of known Smith cohorts... including the anon services? Its the same list mods on GP got sent to help curb the glut they had for a few months.
I don't know. But since you seem to know a lot more about it than me then maybe it was you doing those silly things? Yes, I think so Bearcat. Stop this disinformation. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Or contacting long time poster on let'sjapan, Senseiman, about the impostering of him on here and other sites? Or the owners of that site about the flim flam of Smith and his group?
The Senseiman is not the real one here? Why are you telling me anyway? Why do you think I'm with Smith. I'm not. You are being paranoid.

Or contacting moderators on ELT News of the same?
They will confirm that you are the liar and not me.

Or contacting Sandy over on the Blacklist blogsite about why he had to purge information in a post by a Smithling impostering Senseiman?
Why would I know anything about that? You were the one who got Sandy to set up that account after you bugged him to death with many PMs until he went along with you. That's your department.

Or contacting the network admin on the Smithwatch site to confirm that there's never been any change in who has been running the site and as well confirming how the site came into existence?
Bearcat. Now you are lying. Everyone knows YOU are that person. You are the admin on the new Smithwatch site. People don't trust you as you can see that no one has contributed anything since summer. You stole my content from the original Free ESL site then claimed it as your own.

Or contact Richard, owner, over at Usingenglish.com to confirm the information in his articles (he backed up proof that he's willing to share with those that inquire) about Smith.
What are you talking about? I established the communication with Richard and I was the one who supplied the information for him. That is such a nicely written article how could you have been involved?

They keep in correspondence regularly.
Of course. The original person is me. And admin is you. And this is our delightful correspondence. Why do you keep lying about it? You see no one trusts you since you have hardly any activity on your site.

The Smithwatch site has plenty substantiating what's been stated. Links in this very thread prove that.
Right. 99% of which I created. Since you took over (or I should say 'steal') the site has become a big joke. People visit but leave soon since there is nothing original there. Just a few losers who posted trivial things. I have the golden information and if I were involved with it like I was before then the site would get more popular, guaranteed.

You obviously think you can insult the intelligence of the readers of this thread with this little game you keep playing on here and other sites.
Again, you bore your readers since nothing is going on the site (which you made by stealing my content)
No, again, anytime people view your site (with most of the information MINE) they leave disappointed. I've gotten so many PMs about this. People don't like you.

Mark et al: You're just digging the hole deeper for yourself. The more you do, the more evidence it gives the readers and the Smithwatch site to show just how far down the rabbit hole you and the group will go to perpetuate your con and cult-like behavior.
I think you should get Mark out of your head. I'm not Mark. I'm just against the business itself. You are the real Smithling since you are just obsessed with Mark Smith that it makes you crazy. I guess I'm glad you are out of my life.When you come back to Japan don't even think about trying to visit me. You find your own new friends when you get back here. GOOD BYE!

[Scotty]

Smith's School of English Japan

Apologies to the concerned readers of this thread, especially the franchisees and current customers of Mark John Smith.


It appears that the intent of this thread (being to inform of this person and company ethics) is not favourable to certain persons out there.


They are trying to detract from the facts, and put in misinformation in a vain attempt to conceal the truth.


Quite entertaining actually. Please don't be too distracted by those who don't even use their real names.

There is reasons (valid and deceptive) for some of those out there in this thread to use false information and names.


Try before you buy. Keep your eyes and ears open. Ask those in whom you really trust in the aspect about which you seek information.

Mark John Smith. I'm still waiting. 2,600,000yen is a lot out of my pocket, though not out of yours.

[smithwatch]

Scotty, you make a good point. What's up with you Sensei Man? With that avatar either God has singled you out for lifelong punishment or you are one weird dude. Or perhaps it's really one of the cohorts behind that. What say you Bearcat? Just more disinformation by Smith cultists?

[bearcat]

I wonder....

How can you be shut out of something you have never had access to in the first place?

Let's have Richard from UsingEnglish contact Niko, the moderator here.

And have a moderator from ELT News contact Niko as well.

And have the network admin over on nanobit contact em too.

They'll all confirm what I've been saying. So then how do you plan bs/play off that?

Do you plan to call Niko a liar if they come on here and confirm for readers what I've been saying and the emails from those folks?

I'd like to see that.