Adam Starchild

Adam Starchild
Born Malcolm Willis McConahy
1946
Minnesota, US
Died 2006
Spain
Nationality Dominican Republic (naturalized)
Occupation Business consultant
Author
Known for Fraud
Religion Methodist[1]

Adam Aristotle Starchild (born Malcolm Willis McConahy; 20 September 1946 – 22 September 2006) was a financial consultant, convicted fraudster, key figure in the "perpetual traveler" movement, and prolific author of books relating to investment, taxation, and the "offshore" world.

Early life

Malcolm Willis McConahy was born in Minnesota[2] on 20 September 1946.[1] Nothing more is known of his youth but he later changed his name to Adam Aristotle Starchild, explaining on his website that Starchild was "a common Plains Cree name, found in usage across western Canada" indicating that he might have been of native American descent. He also claimed to be a former chairman of the Confederation of American Indians.[3]

Scouting

Between February and July 1965, McConahy was an assistant scout master with Troop 27 in Minneapolis, a troop sponsored by Plymouth Congregational Church of that city, but was suspended after admitting homosexual interest in boys in the troop. Scouting records state that his personal and family church relationship was with Joyce Methodist Church. At the time he was operating a travel business in Minneapolis.[1]

In July 1965, McConahy was arrested in Wisconsin for circulating pornographic material. He was travelling to New York to take up residence there and was in the company of four boys to whom he had given money.[1]

In 1966, he moved to Milwaukee where he applied in February to be a college reserve scouter. His application stated that he was studying at Blackstone School of Law, to graduate in December 1968. The application was rejected by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America who were aware of his scouting background in Minneapolis.[1] In 1967 he was convicted of possessing obscene literature and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. In 1968 he was arrested for his involvement with a 16-year-old.[4]

First frauds

In 1968, McConahy was convicted for a $57,000 cheque fraud in which he tried to dupe ten different banks. He was running a travel agency, Creative Travel Inc., at the time.[5][6]

By 1970 he was in Britain where he served four years in jail for forgery.[2][4] In 1970, the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission placed securities thought to have been issued by McConahy on its Foreign Restricted List. These included "Bank Money Orders" in the name of J.P. Morgan & Company Ltd. of London (intended to be mistaken for the J.P. Morgan) in an amount exceeding $375,000 which had been mailed to 31 savings and loan associations in California and a bank in Minnesota in order to open new accounts against which withdrawals were then attempted, and documents labelled "Negotiable Certificate of Deposit", also of J.P. Morgan & Company Ltd. of London, which had been circulated in the United States. Advertisements had been placed in U.S. newspapers offering for sale joint venture interests by Swiss Caribbean Development & Finance Corporation of Zurich, and certificates of deposit issued by Trust Company of Jamaica Ltd.[7] After being released, McConahy was extradited to the United States where he served time at Sandstone, Minnesota, for mail fraud.[4]

Adam Starchild

Around 1975 or 1976, McConahy changed his name to Adam Aristotle Starchild. His writing career began at about the same time. He was prolific, writing on topics that broadly reflected his libertarian, anti-tax, anti-government attitudes. He often used publishers who specialised in producing works of a similar nature, such as Loompanics Unlimited, Paladin Press and Scope International. Periods in the 1970s and 80s when he produced no books appear to tie-in with times when he was in prison.

In the early 1970s, Starchild was involved in a number of supposed charitable organisations funded by a wealthy Michigander Francis Duffield Shelden: the Church of the New Revelation of Kearny, New Jersey, Brother Paul's Children's Mission on North Fox Island, Michigan, the Educational Foundation for Youth of Illinois, and the Ocean Living Institute of New Jersey - the last allegedly devoted to underwater habitats, aquaculture, ocean architecture, and ocean law.[8] All four organisations were named in a 1977 newspaper investigation[9][10] and a congressional enquiry into child sexual exploitation, as tax dodges and fronts for sexual activity involving boys.[11]

In 1976 Shelden fled to the Netherlands to escape impending charges.[12] To protect his assets, he handed two million dollars in securities to Starchild, who had advised the creation of an offshore trust, with himself as trustee. However, Starchild neglected to provide proper accounting, or hand over the securities to the successor trustee, Edward Brongersma, whom an increasingly worried Shelden appointed. Despite being an international fugitive, in 1983 Shelden managed to successfully take Starchild to court to reclaim the funds.[13][14]

In 1980, Starchild was linked by the St. Petersburg Times to Richard Kelly's involvement in the Abscam scandal through Starchild's relationship with Kelly's aide J.P. Maher III. According to Kelly, it was Maher who asked Starchild to handle a campaign mailing list through his firm Minerva Consulting Group Inc.[2]

In 1986, he was convicted of mail fraud, beginning his sentence on 25 September 1986.[15] He was additionally convicted of tax fraud in 1989.[16] While incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Ashland, Starchild won third prize in the essay section of the Prison Writing Awards 1990-1991 for his essay, Rape as Punishment.[17] He also had an article published in the Journal of Psychohistory in 1990, titled "Rape of youth in prisons and juvenile facilities" in which he compared and contrasted prison rape in the United States, Britain, Latin America, South Africa, and Turkey, finding that the phenomenon often exhibited cultural differences by region and country.[18]

In 1992, after his release from prison, Starchild appealed his parole conditions that he must live and work in the United States for approximately five years on the grounds, among other things, that as a citizen of the Dominican Republic, he should have been allowed to return to his own country after the completion of his sentence. The Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in October 1992 that they did not have jurisdiction in the matter.[19] It is unclear when Starchild became a citizen of the Dominican Republic or whether he ever gave up his American citizenship.

In 1999 Starchild was living in Panama, and sponsoring a university student in Guatemala.[20] He was a client of Marc Harris's Panama-based Harris Organisation.[16]

In the early 1990s, Starchild's websites devoted to offshore tax avoidance, together with his prolific posts on Usenet (the subjects ranging from investments to health supplements to gay erotica),[21] his enigmatic persona and New Age name, enabled him to establish a quite prominent and eccentric online profile.

Death

Starchild died in Spain, on 22 September 2006. He had recently moved there from Panama as he felt that he would receive better medical care in Spain. Earlier in 2006 he had traveled to Japan for experimental surgery on a tumor and he wrote that his operation there had attracted the attention of the Japanese media. Starchild was survived by his partner Javier.[22] He left behind a remarkably diverse list of registered companies.[23]

Memberships

Among the organisations of which Starchild claimed to be a member were the Libertarian Futurist Society, the International Society for Individual Liberty, Mensa, the National Space Society, The Lighter-Than-Air Society, the World Future Society, the Center for Entrepreneurial Management, the Extropy Institute, The Heinlein Society, the Academy of International Business, The Authors Guild (United States), and The Society of Authors (Great Britain).[3] He was a member of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce.[2]

Selected publications

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Articles

Edited works

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Malcolm Willis McConahy files Boy Scouts of America. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Starchild is mystery figure in Kelly case", Lucy Morgan, St. Petersburg Times, 13 May 1980, Section B.
  3. 1 2 Living Without Borders The Personal Page of Adam Starchild. Adam Starchild, 22 October 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 Malcolm Willis McConahy. Jeff Anderson & Associates, 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  5. ↑ "Check Fraud Charge Leads to Indictment" The Milwaukee Journal, 12 September 1968, p. 1. Google News. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Man Found Guilty of Mail Fraud" The Milwaukee Sentinel, 20 November 1968, p. 8. Google News. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "Commission Announcement: Foreign Restricted List." Securities & Exchange Commission News Digest, No. 70-181, 17 September 1970. Archived here.
  8. ↑ Undercurrents 10, Mar-April 1975, pp8-9
  9. ↑ Porno ring uses church, tax laws, Wright, Marilyn; Traverse City Record-Eagle 4 April, 1977 p1 & p4
  10. ↑ Starchild man of mystery, Wright, Marilyn; Traverse City Record-Eagle 16 December, 1977 p5
  11. ↑ Protection of children against sexual exploitation hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, first session, Chicago, Ill.-May 27, 1977, Washington, D.C.-June 16, 1977
  12. ↑ "When history turns out not so nice | March 6, 2014 | www.leelanaunews.com | Leelanau Enterprise". www.leelanaunews.com. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  13. ↑ "National Bank of Detroit, Plaintiff, v. Francis D. Shelden, et al., Defendants.the Trust Company of the Virgin Islands, Ltd., (no. 82-1905)and Peter J. Cipollini, (no. 82-1737), Defendants-appellants, v. L. Bennett Young and Detroit Bank and Trust Company, Secondsuccessor Co- Trustees, Intervening Defendants-appellees, 730 F.2d 421 (6th Cir. 1984)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  14. ↑ "730 F2d 421 National Bank of Detroit v. D Shelden Trust Company of Virgin Islands Ltd J | OpenJurist". openjurist.org. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  15. ↑ Adam Starchild, Appellant. v. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Appellee, 973 F.2d 610 (8th Cir. 1992). Justia. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  16. 1 2 List of Harris Organisation Clients. 3 September 2002. Quatloos! Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Prison Writing Award Winners: 1990-1991. PEN America. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  18. ↑ APA PsycNET. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  19. ↑ Adam Starchild v. United States Parole Commission, 977 F.2d 586 (8th Cir. 1992) Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Court Listener. 11 April 2015.
  20. ↑ "A Trip To Costa Rica". www.benbest.com. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  21. ↑ "Google Groups". groups.google.com. Retrieved 2015-12-22.
  22. ↑ The sad news. Classically Liberal, 22 September 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2015.
  23. ↑ "ADAM STARCHILD (director) :: OpenCorporates". opencorporates.com. Retrieved 2015-12-22.

External links

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