Anyone reading such awful internet posts and negative articles about Smile Train, WonderWork and HelpMeSee litigation would assume Brian has many, very serious legal problems. I have worked closely with Brian and I have been involved and informed the entire time. The truth is, since 2010 when all of these troubles began, Brian has really had just one major problem: Charles Wang and his vindictive and jealous nature.
My late husband Bill and I met Charles Wang over 40 years ago when we owned Ziff Davis Publishing Company. My husband worked with Mr. Wang him and immediately had concerns about him. These concerns were confirmed when his software company, Computer Associates, was involved in a $3.3 billion securities fraud case. Nine of Charles Wang’s employees went to prison. Wang didn’t because he never used email, his secretary would print all his emails and leave them on his chair. Wang’s protégé who served 12 years in prison, accused Wang of masterminding the entire fraud. Wang’s company agreed and sued Wang for $ 500+ million.
I met Brian around 1992 and worked with him to raise millions for Operation Smile. When he came up with the idea, I helped him launch Smile Train and I served as the first Chairman of Smile Train. Over the next 10 years, Brian and his small team built Smile Train into the world’s largest cleft charity, and raised $700+ million. He won an Oscar for a documentary he produced and provided 500,000+ free cleft surgeries in 90 of the world’s poorest countries. When Brian ran it, The NY Times called Smile Train “perhaps the most productive charity, dollar-per-deed, in the world.”
But then disaster struck. Charles Wang wanted to take over the Smile Train board. He was jealous of all the attention given to Brian and his team for all the successes. He said he should be chairman and pushed me out and off the board. He filled the Smile Train board with his employees and forced Brian and his team out of Smile Train entirely. Next, Wang attempted to merge Smile Train with a small charity in Virginia. Wang’s plan would give him personal control of $150+ million of the Smile Train donations. When donors revolted, The NY Times panned it and the NY State Attorney General began to investigate, Wang cancelled his merger and blamed Brian. He told everyone he was going to destroy Brian. And over the next 10 years he and his lawyers did just that.
Every lawsuit, every allegation, every smear and every negative internet post that includes Brian can be traced back to Charles Wang and his lawyers.
This includes the HelpMeSee arbitration. When Wang heard about Brian’s contract dispute with HelpMeSee, he asked to meet with Jim Ueltschi and persuaded him to hire his lawyers who turned what should have been a two to three day possible one million dollar arbitration into a 4-year ordeal that cost HelpMeSee $12.5 million. (Brian offered to settle this dispute at the very beginning for $600,000.) But Wang’s lawyers didn’t want money – they wanted to destroy Brian and force his charity into bankruptcy. They did both. At a total cost over 10 years of around $25 million. (Legal expenses for HelpMeSee and Smile Train 990s confirm this.)
What a shameless waste of charitable donations. Both Smile Train and HelpMeSee paid for all $25 million of Charles Wang’s lawyers fees.
Believe me, they are both very fine people, and they have suffered too much already. I cannot say enough about what honorable, religious, caring and dedicated people they are.
Tamsen Ann Ziff
Tamsen Ann Ziff is managing director and co-chairman of the Board of the Metropolitan Opera and a vice chairman on the Board of Directors of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Hall and is the founding chairman of the Board of Directors of The Smile Train, an international organization that provides free cleft lip and palate surgery for underprivileged children. Ziff was chairman of the Board of the Rainforest Alliance for six years and currently serves on the Boards of the American Museum of Natural History, Conservation International, the New York Restoration Project, the World Science Festival, and the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami. She is also a member of the National Council of the Aspen Music Festival. She is a founder and producer of the Caribbean Community Theater, St.Croix, U.S.V.I.
Ziff studied music therapy in the Masters program at New York University, where she received a Master’s of Social Work degree. She was a psychiatric social worker in the New York City system for many years.