Letter From Steve Fossum,
IKF World President

To whom it may concern:
This was the beginning of a letter I read today (8/30/01) that was sent to our office for verification of authenticity. To begin with, let me just clearly say this, "THIS IS NOT A LETTER FROM ME OR ANYONE HERE AT THE IKF!

With that being said, let me point out a few things that make it clear that this is not an Official Letter from me or ANYONE here at the IKF Headquarters. As far as the letter, it's on this page in full below.

  1. If "I" were to have written such a letter, I sure as heck would know WHO I was sending it to, especially a letter as important as this one for "Approval of Sanctioning". It would have NEVER started out with, "To whom it may concern:".
  2. If it came from me and or the official IKF Headquarters, it would have OUR Address on it from Newcastle, CA, NOT San Diego, CA, over 500 miles away from our main office.
  3. This letter IS NOT on Official IKF Letterhead. Those who have received Official letters from the IKF "KNOW" what such a letter or even an Official Fax from the IKF Headquarters looks like.
  4. It is clear that my name was signed by someone else (Forged) and to say the least, it's not even a good forgery. Those seeing my personal signature before can assure this as well.
  5. IF we DID sanction an event on "MAY 27th, 2000, in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, it would be able to be seen on our news page at this link:
    www.ikfkickboxing.com/News2000May-Aug.htm.
    In addition, we didn't even have "1" Events in Mexico in the year 2000. The ENTIRE YEAR.
  6. Let me add to this. Here are the ONLY IKF Sanctioned Events ever promoted under our Sanction in the entire country of Mexico. 5 IKF Events and 4 IKF/*Border League Amateur Events. Here they are;

(*) The Border League was a small league (California & Mexico fighters only) designed to help Amateur competition. It is organized by Mr. Doug Dickey and Mr. Miguel Reyes.

Let it be known that this letter (Shown below) and the other issues on this page have been delivered to our IKF Legal Department. I would also like to add that this letter here on the OFFICIAL IKF WEBSITE "IS" for real!

I will be in Puerto Vallarta for an upcoming "Official and TRUE IKF Sanctioned Kickboxing Event" on October 6th, 2001. I suggest that whoever this person is, (Willy Duenas) he had better have a "Very Good Story" why he has in his possession a letter with the Official IKF Logo on it AND a forgery of my signature. In addition, I am very aware of the actions being made "WITH" this letter as their so called "PROOF" of support of the IKF. Lets be honest here everyone. LOOK at this letter, the letterhead etc. One of my 5 year old Karate Students could have made a more impressive forgery...

I expect to get my answers to this matter in person, and I truly look forward to coming to Puerto Vallarta on October 6th, 2001 to meet everyone involved, DIRECTLY.

Sincerely,
Steve Fossum,
IKF World President

The address and 2 names were crossed out on this letter because the person who wrote it has tried to implement 2 of our REAL IKF Officials who DID NOT write or send THIS LETTER.

Now, to add to all this, please see below the actual letter our IKF Mexico Representative DID send to these people from his work.

PREVIOUS POSTING
ABOUT THIS SAME ISSUE BELOW

PLEASE BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING
"FAKE"
IKF CERTIFICATES AND POSTER

Location: Mexico:
The person ( Profr. Willy Duenas ) signing this certificate below IS NOT an IKF Official in any way. The certificate below IS NOT an Official IKF Certificate. This person has never been given permission to use the IKF Name and or Logo in ANY WAY!

Location: Mexico:
The Poster below WAS NEVER of an IKF Sanctioned Event. The person using the IKF logo on this poster, Profr. Willy Duenas has used the IKF Logo Illegally...

The contact info for this person is; Puyng Dang Muay Thai Calle Oceano Atlantico No.123 , Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco Mexico, Profr. Willy Duenas & Profra. Judith Rivera, 011-52-322.

PREVIOUS POSTING
ABOUT ANOTHER SIMILAR SITUATION BELOW

Please find below another past press announcement in regards to another event in Mexico using the IKF Name & Logo

MONDAY, February 12th, 2001, AT 6:30 PM PT

IKF Logo USE.... Get Permission BEFORE You Use It Or It Could Cost You BIG!

Several months back in Tecate Mexico someone spotted a poster for an amateur kickboxing tournament in Tecate promoted by one Abraham Tostado. On the poster was the official IKF logo. The only problem though was that Mr. Tostado's event was never sanctioned by the IKF. He was simply using the IKF logo Illegally. When we discovered this, we asked one of our Representatives to ask Mr.Tostado about this and he told our Representative that someone else said he could use it. However after investigating this more, it was discovered that Mr. Tostado was not only illegally using the official IKF logo on his poster, he was now making up stories about WHO he claimed said he could use it at all. No one EVER Authorized him to use the IKF Logo. Poor Mr. Tostado now faces a hefty fine that needs to be paid quickly or he could find himself in a Mexican jail even quicker.

We would like to point out that the unauthorized use of the official IKF Logo whether it be on event posters, programs, club brochures, signs, business cards, clothing etc. etc. without the official approval of the IKF is Illegal and punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.00 "PER" Placement. The IKF has caught 4 other promoters around the world and collected fines from each of them. One actually did jail time. However there are 2 other Promoters that have used the IKF logo without the approved authorization of the IKF and they are soon to be charged as well after a lot of evidence gathering by the IKF International Legal Team. One is in South Africa and the other is somewhere we cannot disclose as of this posting due to our ongoing legal investigations with him. The South African promoter (Mr. Larry Vorster) went as far as to feature several IKF Title bouts and even had the event publicized in the local newspaper, which we have a copy of. Nice article too... Too bad the title winners are still upset they never received an IKF Title belt...

If you are wondering if an event is truly sanctioned by the IKF, please look at our UPCOMING WORLD EVENTS PAGE by clicking HERE. If the event is not on this page, it is NOT an IKF event. If the event says "To Be Confirmed" it is still not an officially sanctioned IKF event. However, if an event listing says below it, "Event Confirmed" you can be assured that this is an officially sanctioned IKF Event.