Based on experience and blog comments one can conclude it is best not to believe anything Knight says.
17 August: Excerpt of Telephone Conversation with Knight (Knight denies having any issues with Revenue Canada.
Phil Knight: Listen, they know who I am. I file taxes in the US. I have a tax number in the US. They know who I am, so.
Liz: Do you owe them money like you owe the Canadian government money?
Phil Knight: I don’t owe anyone any money
Liz: There is a lien on you for the Canadian government. You know that don’t you.
Phil Knight: I have no idea.
Liz: You should look. There’s a lien. Well there is a lien on you. They have a judgment against you or a lien.
October 5 Meeting:
Knight directly contradicts his comments above regarding Revenue Canada.
Phil Knight: Well, right now I can’t do anything. I have an issue with the Canadian Government, which you’re somewhat familiar with
Phil Knight: Well, I have negotiations with them. What I have made — I have made a resolution with them. They don’t have any — other than I agreed to notify them of 00:04:27, travels I don’t have any other issues with the Canadian Government on any other
Phil Knight: I have the ability to make money just as you do, okay. The problem is any money that I’m making right now is having to be paid to a third party, okay. And I have been doing it. I’ve negated the tax debt that I have. I’ll have it fully completed before — maybe before February 1st, but right now, 90% of what I make goes to pay a tax debt, which I am arguing, okay. The problem is — you can find this quite as easily as anybody else. In Canada, you can argue your tax bill, okay. The problem is you have to pay it first and then you argue, okay. Down here, it’s a whole different bag of wax (ph).
So, I have — we are arguing it, it will go to court, it will be heard, I could win, I could lose, but in the meantime you have to pay. And the problem is, I guess, in the priority of life, they would come first. I mean, I’m not putting you second or last, it’s just there are other people, you are not the only person and I’ve had the same story with them as I’m having with you right now. Now, if you want to go another route, go. It — just all that will do is limit the ability for me to make money, it won’t ignore it.
Phil Knight: I don’t have any money, I have assets, but I cannot dispose of them until such time as this debt is paid to the US, to the Canadian Government. It’s just the way it is. I had to sell my condo, because I had to make a lump-sum payment to get a deal with –
Phil Knight: Well, when you trust other people just as you trusted me. And that trust is broken, you know, there is an issue there, okay. I broke the trust and I apologize. I will sort it out with you; I will sort it out with your people. But in the priority of things, I have to deal with the tax issue first, you know, if it weren’t there, then I guess we’d be talking about something else. The way things are going, it may be taken care of earlier, you know, just February 1st is kind of a — it won’t be any longer than that, because that’s the deadline that I have with them, but —
Phil Knight: No, they will allow me into the United States. It was an agreement that have with them that I would notify them of travel. I’m allowed to come into the United States. I just have to notify them. The problem with last week was the way I went about notifying them, okay was incorrect. That was my blunder. So unfortunately, I had to pay $400 to get the lawyer to do it, and it was done and there was absolutely no problems at all. I’m not restricted from coming into the United States, but simply have to notify them of travel, departure and arrival; it is as simple as that.
Phil Knight: I cannot find a way, I’ve used all the resources that I could have, okay, to do where I’ve gotten to today otherwise, I guess I could have claimed bankruptcy and you know, gone that road. I haven’t, I have been dealing with each of the creditors that I have. The Canadian Government was first and foremost.
Phil Knight : To Revenue Canada, you know, I’ll have to see whether I can change the payment provision or you know I’ve gone far enough along with them that I think we’ve got some leeway, but I haven’t; you know we’re just staying on the course, doing what needs to be done and —
Knight’s matter with Revenue Canada is nobody’s business. However, when he fabricates a story to defer or avoid returning $353,000 he directed as a fiduciary it makes it our business and the business of those who may be thinking of doing business with him.
Due diligence is mandatory when, as and if you’re contemplating investments or business deals with the subject of this website.
Metaphorically a “Trojan Horse” has come to mean any trick or stratagem that causes a target to invite a foe into a securely protected bastion or space and then take them with a surprise attack.
The Trojan Horse is a tale from the Trojan War, as told in Virgil’s Latin epic poem The Aeneid and by Quintus of Smyrna. The events in this story from the Bronze Age took place after Homer’s Iliad, and before his Odyssey. It was the stratagem that allowed the Greeks finally to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict. In one version, after a fruitless 10-year siege, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse, and hid a select force of 30 men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under cover of night. The Greek army entered and destroyed the city of Troy, decisively ending the war.