PSA: Frank R. Nelson

Author: Bret Gordon

I would like to address the recent actions of Frank Nelson, who briefly served as the Kukkiwon Liaison for the American Jidokwan Association (now the US Traditional Taekwondo Federation, or USTTF). After resigning when it became clear that no one within our organization was willing to pay him for Kukkiwon certifications, Mr. Nelson has taken it upon himself to engage in fraudulent and malicious activities. 

Following his resignation, Mr. Nelson has falsely represented himself as the USTTF itself, attempting to steal our organization’s name and logo for personal use on social media. Additionally, he has fraudulently implied that he is the US representative for the World Taekwondo Jidokwan Federation by setting up a "Jidokwan Taekwondo USA" social media account, which is entirely false. 

Through his "Jidokwan Taekwondo USA" page, as well as his other pages: "Kukkiwon Taekwondo USA" and "Moo Duk Kwan Taekwondo USA," he promotes selling certificates in nearly every post. It is clear that Mr. Nelson's sole motivation for these actions is his desire to run a profitable certificate mill by encouraging applicants from all over the world to apply for promotion through him, and organizations like the US Traditional Taekwondo Federation stand in his way. 

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Worse yet, Mr. Nelson has launched a personal vendetta against us, making defamatory allegations accusing me of being a fraud. It’s important to note that these allegations are not new; they have been raised before by other detractors and have already been thoroughly disproven multiple times. For a complete account of these allegations, and my responses to them including detailed articles of my entire training history and copies of my certifications, please read the articles below:

• "Is Bret Gordon A Fraud?" Part 1
• "Is Bret Gordon A Fraud?" Part 2
• My Aiki Journey
• My Taekwondo Journey

In this world, there is truth and there are lies. Neither is a popularity contest. Repeating a lie 500 times does not all of a sudden make it truth, nor does 500 people repeating the same lie increase its validity. The strategy of Mr. Nelson and all of our other detractors has simply been to flood the internet with information, overwhelming the mildly curious to distract from the fact that everything they scream is either a complete fabrication or a gross manipulation of facts. However, I will continue that discussion on my personal blog (click here) as to not lose focus of the subject of this article. 

Let's address the specific concerns and allegations of Mr. Nelson regarding my promotion to 7th Dan from the World Taekwondo Jidokwan Federation. Mr. Nelson made the comment that since only two years had passed since my 6th Dan, that in and of itself was evidence of fraud and foul play. So, let's examine Mr. Nelson's standing in the Jidokwan and where it comes from. 

Mr. Nelson accuses Grandmaster Khalil Jabran, a highly esteemed and internationally respected representative of Jidokwan, of selling rank, and calls for an investigation into the matter. Should GM Jabran be found guilty of selling rank, all of the ranks issued by him would be in danger of nullification. Now, despite telling me he was traveling to Korea to test for his 9th Dan, the official Jidokwan database shows that Mr. Nelson received his 9th Dan from Antoine "Tony" Achkouti of the Jidokwan Canadian Branch. Why is this important? Well, Tony's 9th Dan was issued by none other than GM Jabran, only two years after his 8th Dan might I add. But that's not evidence of fraud or foul play.

So, in the extremely unlikely event that the ranks issued by GM Jabran are officially called into question by the Jidokwan office, that would mean Tony's rank and subsequently Frank's rank would be in danger as well. Wouldn't that be ironic? People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones...

Now, in my experience there is no basis to question GM Khalil Jabran. There are few instructors in the world who work harder for Jidokwan, and in our interactions he has always been a man of honor and integrity. He has received numerous awards from both the Jidokwan and Kukkiwon for his service to Taekwondo, and as I said is an internationally respected expert in the field. 

As for whether or not I have a legitimate history in Jidokwan, that (like every other allegation against us) has already been addressed in the articles linked above. On the surface, Mr. Nelson has been relentlessly vocal on social media lately, trying to drum up support for his impending crusade against frauds in the martial arts. If you dig a little deeper, we find the image of a man bitter over the successes of those he considers beneath him and wanting a "piece of the action" for himself. If he wants to control the sale of Taekwondo certificates to people online, he can have it. We've never been in the certificate business. We're in the quality training and martial arts business. The two couldn't be more different.

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Supporting Images

Tony Achkouti's official Jidokwan database entry, showing his 9th Dan issued by GM Khalil Jabran

Frank Nelson's official Jidokwan database entry, showing his 9th Dan issued by Tony. 

Fraudulent US Traditional Taekwondo Federation Facebook page set up by Mr. Nelson

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EDIT (10/24/2024) - In Mr. Nelson's most recent post in his crusade, he publicly admits to trying to blackmail GM Jabran for an official appointment from the World Taekwondo Jidokwan Federation. Aside from his assumptions of how we became connected to the WTJF being completely false, his post further confirms his true intentions as I suspected, making money off the Jidokwan name and running his own certificate mill, and organizations like ours stand in his way. See his post below:

"Accuse the other of that which you are guilty"
Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister