Robbins accused of withholding information

Advisers for motivational speaker hid vital telephone records, Sun lawyer says

By MARK HUME

Thursday, July 7, 2005 Page S3

VANCOUVER -- Tensions rose yesterday in an increasingly combative libel suit when a lawyer for The Vancouver Sun accused Tony Robbins of deliberately withholding vital information.

Rob Anderson, who is defending the CanWest newspaper in a B. C. Supreme Court action brought by the internationally famous motivational speaker, alleged that Mr. Robbins's U.S. advisers hid telephone records and other documents that would have helped show when an alleged affair began.

"There's been an intentional lying and non-production of documents," a clearly agitated Mr. Anderson told the court.

Mr. Anderson is trying to prove The Vancouver Sun published accurate stories in 2001 when it reported that Mr. Robbins had contributed to the collapse of Bonnie Lynch's marriage to John Lynch, by having an affair with her in 1999.

Mr. Robbins has sued the newspaper, saying the story is false and that his romantic relationship with the Langley woman, who is now married to him under the name Sage Robbins, did not begin until 2000, after her relationship with Mr. Lynch had foundered.

"There's six or seven important documents that are missing for various reasons," Mr. Anderson said.

"[These] documents demonstrate they were together in various places," making reference to a Broadway show in New York, a holiday in Fiji and visits at several seminars Mr. Robbins held in U.S. cities.

He said some of the missing material had been explained away by Mr. Robbins's legal representatives as having been lost in a cyclone in Fiji, where the multimillionaire has a resort.

"[And] Mr. Robbins had a diary that was eaten away by moths, or something," Mr. Anderson said.

But he said a study of bulk telephone records for the Tony Robbins business empire showed that certain numbers had been excised from an initial disclosure, and he alleged that they had been left out deliberately, to make it hard for him to put together "the pieces of the puzzle that demonstrate their relationship."

Roger McConchie, Mr. Robbins's Vancouver lawyer, objected to Mr. Anderson's description, saying he was making serious allegations which were not backed up by the evidence.

"It's nothing more than a suggestion by counsel," he said.

"I never assume a member of the bar . . . would deliberately derogate from his duty and until it was proved to me I would assume he had not," Mr. Justice Paul Williamson said.

Mr. Anderson's allegations came as he opened his defence with a surprise move, turning to the public gallery, pointing a finger, and calling as his first witness Sam Georges, a Los Angeles-based lawyer for Mr. Robbins.

Mr. Georges, who is Mr. Robbins's legal counsel as well as being president and chief executive officer of several of his companies, has been sitting quietly in court for the past two weeks as an observer.

He was not on Mr. Anderson's witness list, but The Vancouver Sun lawyer said the unexpected move, while it may have been unusual, was within the court's rules, a point with which Judge Williamson agreed.

Mr. Anderson said he wanted Mr. Georges on the stand to show that key phone numbers associated with Mr. Robbins had been held back.

"We have discovered . . . telephone numbers that placed calls to Bonnie's cellphone. . . . There's a series of things we didn't get," Mr. Anderson said.

But Mr. Georges, who several times refused to answer questions citing lawyer-client privilege, said Mr. Robbins's employees had strived to provide all the material that was requested.

He said when he received a series of court orders for disclosure, he delegated the task to a vice-president, who put a team of employees on the task.

"I told my staff . . . they had to do a diligent search. There were thousands of thousands if not tens of thousands of pages of material that were put together," he said to Mr. Anderson. "We supplied what we were asked to supply and we did it in good faith."

The trial continues.

[Someone is lying through their teeth to the court....
This is the most revealing info one could ever get into the secretive world of Tony Robbins. This stuff is all hushed up by his non-disclosure aggreements.
It will be interesting to see what the judge makes of all this.]


[www.stockwatch.com]

CanWest's Sun trial hears of frequent phone calls

2005-07-07 19:43 ET - Street Wire

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

Millionaire motivational speaker Tony Robbins was in frequent phone contact with Bonnie Lynch, now Sage Robbins, between September, 1999, and March, 2000, The Vancouver Sun's libel trial has been told. The Sun's lawyer spent the morning of July 7, 2005, reviewing phone records and credit card statements from Mr. Robbins's companies from late 1999 and early 2000. Mr. Robbins and his new wife Sage met in Hawaii in September, 1999, at a Robbins's seminar, and began publicly seeing each other in January, 2000. Mrs. Robbins's divorce from her former husband became final on June 21, 2001.

Mr. Robbins sued The Sun and a host of other defendants, over June, 2001, media coverage. The plaintiff claims that the articles implied that Mr. Robbins was an adulterous hypocrite who stole the wife of Langley, B.C., man John Lynch, driving Mr. Lynch to try to kill himself. The media defendants state that some of the implications in the stories were true, and that the articles were not defamatory. Mr. Lynch, originally a defendant in the lawsuit along with the media defendants and his former legal adviser Gary Sir John Carlsen III, settled out of court with Mr. Robbins one week into the trial.

More Georges

Sun lawyer Rob Anderson continued on his second day of cross-examining Sam Georges, the president and general counsel for Mr. Robbins's group of companies. Mr. Georges asked to address the court from the witness stand, and told Mr. Justice L. Paul Williamson that he had spent the evening reflecting on Mr. Anderson's previous line of questioning. Mr. Georges did not have a chance to talk with Mr. Robbins to ask his client for direction to waive privilege. Mr. Georges also does not have local counsel of his own to ask advice on the intricacies of Canadian laws on lawyer-client privilege.

Mr. Georges told the court that after thinking it over, he cannot continue to answer any questions on the communications between him and his client, or his client's companies. Later, the witness clarified that he will certainly not act in contempt of the court, if the judge orders him to answer a question, he only wanted to clarify his position on privilege.

Judge Williamson thanked Mr. Georges for his comments, and said that it was appropriate for the witness to protect the privilege of his client. If the cross-examination strayed into grey areas, then Mr. Georges could request a local lawyer for consultation.

Phone disclosure

Mr. Anderson asked Mr. Georges about how telephone records from the Robbins companies were prepared by staff at Mr. Robbins's companies. Mr. Georges repeated his answer from Wednesday, saying that as he received orders and requests in Los Angeles for document disclosure, he would hand the requests off to various employees to dig up the documents. The process took over four years, from the inception of the lawsuit, and reached a fever pitch in the months leading up to the trial after preliminary hearings in the lawsuit. Mr. Georges made reference to one demand for documents, when one young man at the Robbins companies had to work over his Memorial Day weekend and fly up to Vancouver with 300 pounds of video tapes, to comply with pretrial orders.

Mr. Anderson took his witness back to the phone records the court had looked at the previous day. Flipping through the phone records delivered to the defence by Mr. Robbins, Mr. Anderson asked Mr. Georges where the rest of the records were, in light of recently received information from Mrs. Robbins's cellphone records. Apparently, between early October, 1999, and March, 2000, Mrs. Robbins placed over 100 calls to Mr. Robbins's answering service. The calls were not reflected in any of the documentation delivered by the plaintiff, Mr. Anderson said.

Roger McConchie, Mr. Robbins's lawyer, strongly objected to the question. According to the plaintiff's lawyer, Mr. Anderson was referring to documents received the previous day and that had not been shown to Mr. McConchie. By putting unproven assertions to the witness as if they were fact, without any supporting documentation before the court, Mr. McConchie said, the witness could be left with the wrong impression.

Mr. McConchie was also worried about the accuracy of media stories, based on Mr. Anderson's tactics. "There is nothing we can do to control misleading information in many newspaper reports," Mr. McConchie said. In the plaintiff's own documents, Mr. Robbins admitted that he and Mrs. Robbins were in communication as mere friends between October and November, 1999, while they were both dating other people, Mr. McConchie added. As the plaintiff never said there was no communication, the lawyer was not sure why the court needed to go through the exercise of reviewing the phone records.

The frequency of the calls was relevant to his case, Mr. Anderson argued. Mr. Robbins testified in his pretrial examination for discovery that the calls between Mrs. Robbins and himself were not at all frequent. The comparison would show the lack of co-operation from the plaintiff in disclosing all records of phone calls between the plaintiff and Mrs. Robbins.

The judge waited until both lawyers were finished, then told them that he was troubled by the amount of time being taken at trial to go over the evidence in this laborious fashion. He told Mr. Anderson that he would be allowed to ask Mr. Georges if the witness knew if Mrs. Robbins called Mr. Robbins's 800-number answering service.

Mr. Anderson then asked Mr. Georges, "Did you know that Bonnie placed a number of calls to Mr. Robbins's answering service between October and March?"

"No," Mr. Georges replied.

Details of phone records

The Sun lawyer moved deeper into the phone records. A few of the records indicated that phone calls were placed to Mrs. Robbins's cellphone from various phones at Mr. Robbins's companies. Mr. Georges could not verify those comments, as he does not know Mrs. Robbins's phone number, and cannot identify who might have placed the phone calls on the Robbins end.

Mr. Anderson then turned to travel records reflected in Robbins company credit card statements, some of which had potions redacted before they were delivered to the Sun's lawyers. Mr. Georges denied redacting the entries, or telling anyone to do so. He was unaware who might have modified the records. Mr. Anderson specifically went to the January, 2000, records, that showed a Robbins company account that paid for two plane tickets to Fiji for Mrs. Robbins and her sister, Debbie Humphrey. In the first set of documents that the defendants received, the entry for Ms. Humphrey's travel was blacked out, while in subsequent documents, her name is unaltered. Mr. Georges was unable to say who had redacted the information.

Aiming for the Robbins' divorce

Mr. Anderson turned his questions to ask about Mr. Robbins's seminars themselves. Mr. Georges was asked if, prior to 1999, Mr. Robbins's first wife Becky would often attend the seminars. Mr. McConchie objected to the question, saying it was not at all relevant. Mr. Anderson had been cross-examining Mr. Georges for over a day, Mr. McConchie said, and now he wanted to ask more seemingly irrelevant questions.

Mr. Georges was excused from the courtroom while the lawyers discussed the matter. Mr. Anderson said that the questions were germane to his case, as they dealt with the divorce between Mr. Robbins and Becky Robbins, which was mentioned in the original Sun story in 2001. The Sun lawyer claims to have video footage that places Becky Robbins at the Hawaii seminar in September, 1999, at which Sage Robbins first met Mr. Robbins. In addition, Mr. Anderson said that affidavit evidence of Becky Robbins, filed in an unrelated matter, will show Becky Robbins was not at an October, 1999, seminar in Portland, Ore. This is important because phone records indicate that Mr. Robbins called Sage Robbins in Langley, B.C., and then Sage Robbins travelled to Portland. Mr. Anderson hoped that the judge could infer that Sage Robbins went to Portland at Mr. Robbins's request.

The trial continues after lunch, when Mr. McConchie will respond to Mr. Anderson's comments.


[www.stockwatch.com]

CanWest's Sun trial hears about the Whistler trip


2005-07-07 21:20 ET - Street Wire

by Stockwatch Business Reporter

The afternoon session of 13th day of the libel trial of motivational speaker Anthony Robbins versus The Vancouver Sun and others heard about John and Bonnie Lynch's 1999 sleeping arrangements at Whistler, B.C. Mr. Robbins's current wife Sage shared a bedroom with her then husband John Lynch in Whistler in November, 1999. The Whistler trip evidence was disputed by Mr. Robbins's lawyer, who said the trip was a fabrication.

The Whistler testimony puts Mr. Lynch and his ex-wife Bonnie in the same bedroom within weeks of their separation and after Mrs. Lynch first attended one of Mr. Robbins's seminars in September, 1999.

Mr. Robbins is suing The Vancouver Sun over stories that Mr. Robbins took to mean he was an adulterous hypocrite who stole Mr. Lynch's wife, against his own teachings. The stories, printed in 2001, said Mr. Lynch tried to kill himself with pills and a knife after his wife left him.

The Sun denies that its stories meant anything defamatory.

Mr. Lynch, who Mr. Robbins was also suing, apologized mid-trial for contributing to the story and was dropped as a defendant.

Day 13 heard a friend of Mr. Lynch, Allen Lawrence, testify about the Whistler trip and deny that he and Mr. Lynch spent their weekends on the nightclub scene.

Mr. Georges accounts for the accountants' accounting

Before Mr. Lawrence could take the stand, Sam Georges, head of several of Mr. Robbins's companies, finished his testimony. Sun lawyer Rob Anderson asked him about the assembly of financial records he provided for the trial.

Mr. Georges explained how he delegated the task to the accounting department after Mr. Robbins's lawyer, West Vancouver libel specialist Roger McConchie, directed him to prepare the records.

Mr. Anderson also asked Mr. Georges if Mr. Robbins's first wife, Becky, attended an Oct. 4, 1999, motivational seminar held by Mr. Robbins in Portland, Ore. "I don't know," Mr. Georges replied.

(That seminar took place after Mr. Robbins first met Mrs. Lynch at a September, 1999, seminar in Hawaii.)

The Lynches' Whistler bedroom

With Mr. Georges's testimony completed, it was time for Mr. Lawrence, now a resident of Montreal, to take the stand. Under questioning by Scott Dawson, one of the three defence lawyers, Mr. Lawrence told the court of a November, 1999, weekend he spent in Whistler with Mr. Lynch and his then wife, Bonnie.

He said they appeared to him to be a normal, married couple. "I did not feel that there was any negative energy," Mr. Lawrence told the court.

Mr. Lawrence told the court how the three of them stayed in a chalet-style hotel in Whistler, with the Lynches staying in the bedroom and Mr. Lawrence on the couch.

Mr. Lawrence confirmed the Lynches shared a queen-sized bed and their two dogs slept on a pillow on the floor. He said they spent time at Buffalo Bill's, an entertainment establishment he once managed, and also visited Chef Bernard's, an eatery in Whistler.

Mr. Lawrence told the court the trip came about when Mrs. Lynch phoned him in October, 1999. They apparently discussed snowboarding and planned the trip.

The cellphone incident

Mr. Lawrence said during the trip he unexpectedly came across Mrs. Lynch talking on her cellphone in the chalet's underground parkade. He testified she "appeared uncomfortable" and hung up the phone as soon as she saw him.

After that, Mr. Lawrence said the very brief trip was over.

The pills in the glove box

Mr. Lawrence told the court he did not learn the Lynches were separated until the following spring, when he had dinner with Mr. Lynch. "I saw my long-time friend hollow, a different person," he testified.

He said he became "greatly concerned" about Mr. Lynch when he opened the glove box in his car and found prescription medication. He testified he asked Mr. Lynch to commit to a program of physical fitness at the time.

At that point Mr. Dawson wrapped up his questioning of Mr. Lawrence.

The Whistler trip did not happen

Mr. Robbins's lawyer, Mr. McConchie, in his cross-examination, suggested the entire Whistler trip did not exist. "The Whistler trip is a figment of your imagination and never happened," Mr. McConchie said.

"That's not true," Mr. Lawrence replied.

Mr. McConchie also suggested that Mr. Lawrence was drinking buddies with Mr. Lynch and they frequently went to Boone County (a Coquitlam nightclub for urban cowboys).

Mr. Lawrence, however, stuck to his story. He repeatedly told Mr. McConchie that his suggestions were not true. When Mr. McConchie told him that he and Mr. Lynch were regulars on the nightclub scene, Mr. Lawrence said, "No, I don't recall that."

Mr. McConchie suggested that Dan Henderson, best man at the Lynch wedding, was also on these drinking trips. Mr. Lawrence said he did not recall Mr. Henderson.

Mr. McConchie suggested that Mr. Lawrence, who had many contacts in nightclubs with his job as a liquor salesman, would have been able to help Mr. Lynch circumvent the lines at nightclubs. Mr. Lawrence, however, told Mr. McConchie he did not spend any time drinking with the married Mr. Lynch, other than one night at Boone County.

Mr. Lawrence did agree with Mr. McConchie's suggestion that he had no idea what Mr. Lynch was up to on Friday and Saturday nights.

The "great chasm"

Mr. McConchie spent some time establishing that there was a "great chasm" in the relationship between Mrs. Lynch and Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence, for his part, agreed with Mr. McConchie.

He said there was some friction between himself and Mrs. Lynch after a relationship he had with one of her friends ended badly. He testified that this would have been six to eight weeks after the Lynch wedding. Mr. Lawrence confirmed he did not talk to Mrs. Lynch for over five years after the 1993 wedding.

When she phoned him to arrange the Whistler trip, Mr. Lawrence said it was the first time they had spoken since 1993.

Mr. McConchie repeated, with some incredulity, the fact that she would have phoned Mr. Lawrence after all this time and then decided to spend a weekend with him and Mr. Lynch in Whistler.

Mr. Lawrence, however, stuck by his story. He said he thought she was trying to mend fences, and he saw the Whistler trip as an opportunity to do just that.

Mr. Lawrence's past

Mr. McConchie also asked Mr. Lawrence to clarify where he has lived and when. Mr. Lawrence testified he was born in Duncan, B.C., 42 years ago. He said he lived in Whistler between 1987 and 1988, and then lived in Vancouver until he moved to Montreal in June, 2002.

Mr. McConchie wrapped up his questioning asking Mr. Lawrence when he learned he would be testifying. Mr. Lawrence told him he talked to Sun lawyer Mr. Dawson two weeks ago.

The trial resumes tomorrow, possibly with Sun editor Patricia Graham taking the witness stand.

If you look on WikiPedia, there is a SANITIZED view of Robbins.
[en.wikipedia.org]

(Robbins real name is "Anthony J Mahavorick", and he dropped out of high-school)
[www.google.com]


Why is Wiki so sanitized?
Because Robbins lawyers were hunting down and threatening people who would post things on Wiki about him! This guy has his lawyers scan the internet and then threaten lawsuits on anyone who tries to tell the truth about this guy. Robbins is like a psychopath, the more you learn about him, the worse it gets.

--------------------------------

[en.wikipedia.org]

In the article Tony Robbins, there is/was the following text:

"Controversial issues regarding Tony Robbins:
In 2001 Robbins was divorced from his wife Becky. This disturbed some who had read his books (one of which is dedicated to her) and listened to his cassette programs, since both liberally dispense advice on how to have a happy marriage relationship. Robbins has, however, advocated that if one is truly unable to be happy in a marriage, one ought to improve it - possibly by leaving.

Dreamlife.com, a company founded by Tony Robbins failed and went bankrupt. This obviously shocked some who depended on Robbins for business and investment advice."

I am not the author of this text; it is part of the earliest version given on the article's history page, dated May 29, 2003 with author Jpb1968; I do not know if that was its creation date, or if it goes back further still. The last sentence of the marriage topic was added more recently, again not by me.

This text was block-deleted by an anon on Sept. 22 and I reverted it back in. It was anon-block-deleted again this morning, Sept. 27, and I reverted it again. It was then immediately deleted again, this time by a new user, User:RRIESQ, who called it false and defamatory, and put this on my talk page:

"Mr. Gary D:
You are requested to contact the Law Office of Lavely & Singer PC (310-556-3051 x247) with regard to defamatory content on wikipedia that you repeatedly have restored, and therefore posted, after deletion by our office on behalf of our clients. If you do not respond, formal action shall be required. Thank you. Lavely & Singer P.C."

This link gives all of the articles by Stockwatch on Robbins libel trial.

[www.google.com]

Also, you can go to www.Stockwatch.com and look on the front page for "CanWest".

Also, search google news...
[news.google.com]

There is going to be 2 MORE WEEKS of evidence against Tony Robbins by the defence. This trial is going to seriously damage Robbins. So much info is coming out.
By the end of this, Robbins is going to be 100x more secretive, and use untraceable phones, cash, and be much more COVERT in his dealings. This is the most info we will ever get about Robbins. After this, just watch, he is going to disappear behind a firewall. He blew it in this case, by using his phones and credit cards, etc. Never again, trust me.
This is going to make Robbin much more secretive, if that's possible, and much more cynical and dangerous. Its too bad there is really nothing to stop these maniacs from doing whatever they want out there.

Tony Robbins has now THREATENED TO SUE THE ONLY MEDIA COVERING HIS LIBEL TRIAL.
His lawyers have threatened another LIBEL lawsuit to Stockwatch.com, which is really the only media covering this trial. Its a totally frivolous action, meant to try and shut them down, and CLOSE DOWN THE PUBLIC RECORD.

Robbins is one EVIL SOB.
Pity those who are harmed by this sociopathic narcissist.

Please folks, help with this cause.
Please notify as MANY MEDIA OUTLETS AS YOU CAN ABOUT THIS.
Please.
Lets get some more media into this trial.
Post this info everywhere, notify Reuters, NYT, CNN, ABC, every media outlet you can. Once ONE of them picks it up, then more will.
Stockwatch could be ordered to stop its articles by its management. That is Robbins goal. Close down the only media covering the trial.

Please take some time and notify some more media.



[www.stockwatch.com]

CanWest/Robbins trial coverage may be new libel: Lawyer


2005-07-11 13:45 ET - Street Wire

by Stockwatch Businesss Reporter

On Friday, July 8, 2005, Stockwatch received a frosty three-page letter from Brian Wolf, litigation lawyer for Tony Robbins, over Stockwatch's coverage of the libel trial between Mr. Robbins and CanWest Global Communications Corp.'s Vancouver Sun. Mr. Wolf notes on page one of his letter that Stockwatch's coverage of his client's trial on Thursday was in error regarding a telephone call and subsequent trip by Sage Robbins to Portland. Stockwatch wrote, "Phone records indicate that Mr. Robbins called Sage Robbins in Langley, B.C., and then Sage Robbins travelled to Portland." These events formed part of The Sun's lawyer's arguments; they are not fact and remain unproven. Mr. Robbins's lawyer Roger McConchie objected strongly to The Sun's suggestions.

The remaining two pages of Mr. Wolf's letter are devoted to Stockwatch's further shortcomings. Mr. Wolf scolds Stockwatch for its coverage, saying: "You may not present a one-sided account of the proceedings or unduly emphasize the facts of one side of the case and not the other." The lawyer continues: "In none of the recent articles published by Stockwatch do you inform your readers that the principal sources for the false and defamatory article published by the Sun have publicly apologized and retracted their statements forming the basis of the lawsuit. John Lynch, who is the principal source of the defamatory article, had his written and executed apology read by his counsel in open court, wherein he admitted that Mr. Robbins did not destroy his marriange and that he (Lynch) never attempted suicide." He adds, "You further fail to inform your readers that the other principal source of the article -- Gary "Sir-John" Carlsen III -- also apologized to Mr. Robbins and testified during the trial that the motivation in soliciting the Sun to publish the false and defamatory story regarding Mr. Robbins was part of a scheme to "shakedown" Mr. Robbins and to "squeeze" Mr. Robbins for $25 million."

Mr. Wolf charges that Stockwatch's failure to restate the aforesaid facts in each article published regarding the lawsuit creates a false and potentially libelous impression of the current status of the action. "I can only presume that your selective reporting of the evidence and status of the case is to influence public opinion against Mr. Robbins and further tarnish and damage his reputation. Under the circumstances, your incomplete, biased and unbalanced articles may constitute new and independent acts of libel."

Mr. Robbins's lawyer demands, "In the future articles pertaining to the trial, the aforesaid facts concerning the retraction and apologies by The Sun's own sources, and the fact that the intent of the sources in fabricating the article published by The Sun was to attempt to extort Mr. Robbins, should be prominently featured in order to present a fair and balanced account of the current status of the proceedings."

Mr. Wolf concluded: "Please be advised that we are monitoring and cataloging each inaccurate statement which appears in Stockwatch pertaining to the trial, and we will take whatever action is appropriate to protect and enforce our clients's rights. I trust that all future articles regarding this trial will present an accurate and balanced portrayal of the proceedings, including the fact that the two sources of the article have apologized and retracted their false statements."

Stockwatch's coverage of the trial continues.

Robbins can easily out-con the con-artists...

-----------------


"Some $65,000 in alleged kickbacks went to pay for Robles' "platinum membership" in a motivational-behavior group run by self-help guru Tony Robbins, Valenzuela said."

[www.latimes.com]

Tony Robbins former wife "Becky Robbins threw out everything in the house: clothes, books, journals and pictures" during their divorce.

CanWest's Sun trial continues Robbins deposition
[www.stockwatch.com]

Also, Tony Robbins shows his hostile nature during pre-trial interviews.

CanWest's Sun trial hears about Robbins's teachings
[www.stockwatch.com]

Testimony gives rare glimpse of Robbins's life

By ROD MICKLEBURGH

Thursday, July 21, 2005

VANCOUVER -- Self-help guru Tony Robbins has earned a fortune inspiring adherents willing to pay big bucks to have their "giant within" awoken to help realize their full potential.

But, as B.C. Supreme Court heard yesterday, Mr. Robbins's personal life is not without its own highs and lows.

Excerpts from Mr. Robbins's lengthy pre-trial examination for discovery in his libel suit against the Vancouver Sun provided a rare glimpse of the multimillionaire motivator's private ups and downs, far removed from his confident, late-night TV promos seen around the world.

Answering questions last month from Vancouver Sun lawyer Rob Anderson, Mr. Robbins told of a black mould infestation of his California mansion, and the anguish he felt when his ex-wife used the mould as an excuse to throw out all his personal papers.

"She decided that my history was something I valued and something she would injure," said Mr. Robbins during his examination by Mr. Anderson, who spent the day reading excerpts of the testimony into the court record.

"As a result, I have virtually no pictures, I have virtually no papers, no journals, no anything from most of my life."

Mr. Robbins told Mr. Anderson that the mould and his ex-wife Becky's actions are why he could not provide the Sun with any of his past personal journals for the newspaper to examine.

"Her description to me was the mould we had at La Jolla Farms destroyed a good deal of our clothing and books," he said.

"She decided that these things were not valuable and decided to discard them. So that's the truth of the matter."

Tony and Becky Robbins, who were married for more than 14 years, were going through divorce proceedings at the time.

Earlier, Mr. Robbins testified that he was unable to hand over other complete records of his past activities to the Sun because a cyclone destroyed the lavish residence in Fiji where much of the material was kept.

Mr. Robbins is suing the Vancouver Sun over an article published four years ago that implied he had broken up the marriage of Langley businessman John Lynch to his wife of 10 years, Bonnie.

The inspirational speaker contends he did not begin seriously dating Ms. Lynch, whom he married in 2002, until after she had separated from her husband.

Mr. Robbins also outlined the three-step progression of his relationship with Ms. Lynch, who now calls herself Sage Robbins.

"The relationship commenced in January of 2000," he told Mr. Anderson during the examination for discovery.

"We were great friends and we began having some attraction for each other. By April, there was 'intimacy,' " said Mr. Robbins, and "from June, we were inseparable."

Asked by Mr. Anderson whether he would call himself and Ms. Lynch "close acquaintances" by January, Mr. Robbins replied: "I would say great friends."

The couple met at a Robbins seminar in Hawaii in September, 1999.

Ms. Lynch had been hired to monitor the health and blood cells of seminar participants.

"I believe she did my blood toward the end of the Life Mastery program," Mr. Robbins recounted.

"I believe that's when we exchanged phone numbers and became friends, but I'm not positive."

The trial continues today.

"In a separate clip, Mr. Robbins spoke of an incident when he told the media that he was buying a castle, which set off quite a media storm. Mr. Robbins, who had only leased the castle for six months, got a stern talking-to by an unnamed partner, who told him, "You are in so much shit."

CanWest's Sun trial hears more of Lynch Whistler trip
[www.stockwatch.com]

Cosmo,

Interesting posts!

I find it amazing that a guy as smart as Tony didn't make back up copies of journals, photos and other personal materials. Truely, what was he thinking? Making copies of irreplacable objects is common sense 101.

Should he be teaching this in his seminars?