Richard Hackworth

By Lordus Sapiens — Possessor of Legitimate Taekwondo Rank

No one has done as much to sully the reputation of Taekwondo as Richard Hackworth…and he’s a HAPKIDO guy.

Richard Hackworth was once a real martial artist, having lived and trained in Korea and even rising to 6th dan in arguably the most prestigious Hapkido organization in the world, the Korea Hapkido Federation. Then…well…Hackworth lost his way, it seems, as he embarked on a campaign to trick various organizations into awarding him rank in martial arts that he hadn’t earned, and then got caught selling fake Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) dan certificates to ignorant Taekwondoin stateside…

It seems that the KTA doesn’t award their own dan certificates…they are affiliated with the Kukkiwon and only use/recognize the Kukkiwon dan (it’s a difficult to grasp relationships for some, but I won’t go into it here*). Of course, Hackworth knew this at the time, as he had been trying unsuccessfully for years to get someone in Korea to give him either Kukkiwon rank or rank that he could later use to acquire Kukkiwon rank. Apparently he felt his 6th dan in Hapkido qualified him to be a Master-level Taekwondo instructor — but at one point he DID manage to con a Korean friend into getting him a Jung Do Kwan certificate from Young Woo Lee — then head of the JDK — which he then turned around and tried to use to acquire Kukkiwon rank with…but the Kukkiwon refused and when GM Lee heard what he had done he revoked the rank down to a 1st dan and threatened him.

Why it was so important for him to acquire Taekwondo rank when he was already master level in Hapkido? Perhaps for business reasons? Hapkido IS harder to market than Taekwondo…but we may never know…

There ended up being considerable fallout from the various rank scandals, which resulted in Hackworth being thrown out of the Korea Hapkido Federation. Both his 6th dan, and recognition of his school, were revoked by the KHF. Hackworth’s scams finally came fully into the light when groups of martial artists pleaded to the KHF and the KTA to deal with the situation, which first resulted in the KHF sending out the following list (this is a transcription of the email):

“The List of KHF Non-Korean Masters in the World

This is the list of KHF masters over the 4th Dan level in the world. If you have any question, please contact Director Sung-Book Bae.

(Tel: 82-2-3437-3530, 82-11-258-7106 Email: yesb279@hotmail.com )

* notice * 
The masters listed below are from the data base from 1997 to 2003. The names before 1997 will be up-loaded soon.

THE 4TH DAN

PHIPILE TAI-PA PINERD (FRANCE), DIEGO FERNANDO RAMOS (COLOMBIA), UWE NOLTING (GERMANY), QUINTELIER PATRICK (BELGIUM), MICHAEL BYRD (U.S.A.), THOMAS HAUCH (GERMANY), RONDY RAE MCKEE (U.S.A.), JESUS CASTELLANOS PUEBLAS (SPAIN), REZA VALI NEJAD (IRAN), ROSE ANTONIO LAGIER (ARGENTINA), BRUCE HOWES (AUSTRALIA), MARK D HUME (U.S.A.), MICHAEL RHOADES (U.S.A.), ANTONIO MANUEL MARTINS FRAGA (PORTUGUESE), JONATHAN KLEINEMAN (U.S.A.), KONRAD SPILLMAN (U.S.A.), MOLLET REMI (FRANCE), WADE LANGIN (CANADA), PLORENTIN ANDRE (FRANCE), PHAM MINH PHUOC (VIETNAM), FABIAN DUQUE (COLOMBIA), COUET RAPHAEL (FRANCE).

THE 5TH DAN

CHRISTIAN MEIER (U.S.A.), FRANCISCO OSCAR TAJES (ARGENTINA), MIHEE HACKWORTH (U.S.A.), LIVIO BALOCCO NICOLAY (U.S.A.), RONALD C. GARLAND (U.S.A.), ANDREW SANDS (AUSTRALIA), JOHN GILL (AUSTRALIA).

THE 6TH DAN

HECTOR ALDERETE (ARGENTINA), RICHARD HACKWORTH (U.S.A.), SAMUEL G. PLUMB (G.B.).

THE 7TH DAN

SCOTT SHAW (AUSTRALIA), HOLCOMBE THOMAS (U.S.A.), HAROLD L. WHALEN (U.S.A.), JULIAN LIM (MALAYSIA).”

Now, this release from the Korea Hapkido Federation created a shit storm in the US among American master instructors who up to then had defended Hackworth because up to that point Hackworth had been claiming to be an 8th dan when he was only a 6th dan. Upon learning that all their master certifications were fraudulent and worthless and that they had paid Hackworth a lot of money for nothing, the US Hapkido community turned their backs on him and demanded that something be done. The KHF sent out another message on the same BBS:

“The Mr. Richard Hackworth Case
Writer : The KHF (yesb279@hotmail.com)

The Korea Hapkido Federation announces that the case related to Mr. Richard Hackworth of Haemu-Kwan in the US has been processed as the follows:

1. The KHF does not authorize any qualification officially to Mr. Richard Hackworth except the next two;
   • The KHF Certified 6th Dan Black Belt
   • The KHF Certified Master
2. The KHF recognizes “Hae Mu Kwan” as a certified Dojang continuously.
3. The KHF restricts Master Richard Hackworth’s official activities only at his Dojang “Hae Mu Kwan”.
4. The KHF does not recognize any certificate at any case including Dan certificates which are issued by Master Richard Hackworth privately or in the name of “Hae Mu Kwan”.

Jan. 7. 2004. 
The Korea Hapkido Federation”

Hackworth claimed that the KHF’s Master Bae was a fraud and tried to place blame on another Korean master for not processing the dan certificates, but in the end, no one was buying it. The final blow came when the KHF made the following announcement:

“According to the article 9 of the law of our organization, the person mentioned below is dismissed from all the KHF membership and rank.

Name ; Richard Hackworth 
Natl. ; USA 
Rank ; Master & Director of Orlando Branch(USA) 
Dojang; Hae Mu Kwan 
Date ; Feb. 16, 2004.

The Korea Hapkido Federation 
President Oh Se Lim”

Now…this is a big deal. For all the talk about people and organizations stripping rank and recognition, the truth is that it almost never really happens.

Sadly, that did not put an end to Hackworth’s fraudulent activities. Ultimately, Hackworth — leveraging the Internet — simply created his own paper organizations (seven at last count, as well as the “Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association” for which he even goes to the trouble to maintain a mail drop in Korea to create an illusion of authenticity), elevating himself to “grandmaster” in each. He operates a virtual spiderweb of web sites and Facebook pages from which he runs his martial arts and media “empire.” He also operates a school in Ocoee, Florida and has a few affiliates.

Hackworth loves media and the Internet and seems to spend most of his time on Facebook harassing people, but he isn’t very good at it. In spite of his verified rank (before being stripped) Hackworth’s Hapkido skills had always been suspect, and his training tapes and videos are some of the worst ever made (all of Hackworth’s media — as his name might suggest — are of the lowest imaginable quality)…none of which has ever seemed to slow Hackworth down in the slightest. Like a cockroach in a toilet bowel, he just swirls around and around, but never seems to go down…

One of Hackworth’s Many, Many Pages (I think this is the main one)

Hackworth’s School Page

Hackworth’s Media Company

Bullshido Investigation and Report on Hackworth

There are many, many, MANY threads online that discuss Hackworth and his fraudulent activities over the years…

Oh…and the KOREAN Hapkdo Federation…there are a couple versions of this, but the one that Hackworth is affiliated with, well, it’s yet another one of Hackworth’s paper organizations:

Hackworth’s version of the KOREAN Hapkido Federation

* Okay…for those who don’t know how it works…the KTA acts as a NGB for Korean Taekwondo, similar to USA Taekwondo for the United States. They DO NOT allow foreigners into the KTA. They DO NOT give out their own dan ranks. All dan ranks are done by the Kukkiwon. For additional details, I suggest contacting the Kukkiwon and KTA.

Update!

So, it appears that Poor Richard is making a bunch of noise concerning other people’s inductions into various Halls of Fame (see below):

My first questions is…could you have picked a bigger font?

Okay…Richard is well-known for heading all his own paper organizations and having all sorts of fake credentials and awards. It just goes with the territory if you’re going to be a self-promoted fake grandmaster. The strange or “funny” part of this is that a couple of weeks ago, Poor Richard apparently decided he wanted a refund:

So which is it, Richard? Do you admit to buying awards or not? Seems to me you have painted yourself into a huge contradiction. So you are admitting here that you HAVE bought hall of fame awards for yourself, and that you are now demanding a refund. Weird…so where’s the integrity of that?

It’s also worth noting that your claim of KHF recognition is completely bogus. In an extremely rare move, the KHF STRIPPED YOU of your rank and any recognition (including your school and any and all affiliates) in 2004:

“According to the article 9 of the law of our organization, the person mentioned below is dismissed from all the KHF membership and rank.

Name ; Richard Hackworth 
Natl. ; USA 
Rank ; Master & Director of Orlando Branch(USA) 
Dojang; Hae Mu Kwan 
Date ; Feb. 16, 2004.

The Korea Hapkido Federation 
President Oh Se Lim”

Integrity indeed…

UPDATE!

So, it has come to my attention that Richard Hackworth has been posting the link to this article on various forums and Facebook groups.

Why?

I have no idea.

It’s interesting tho…I track site visits on this site, and hardly anyone actually reads this article. Since originally posting it, the article on Richard Hackworth has averaged less than two views per day, and that’s taking account of a few spikes when he’s made a fraud of the month list or something.  Sadly, it seems, no one really gives a shit about poor Richard.

More people read the article on “Anshu Still has a Penis.” About ten times more.

Richard Hackworth, in spite of all the statements he makes regarding his influence on American martial arts, simply isn’t relevant anymore. No one cares about him or what he does. He had his moment, years ago when he got involved in the fake rank certificate scandal, and he blew his chance to be a big deal.

Oh well.

Apparently, his reason for posting the link was to blame Hapkido Master Alain Burrese for the authorships of this article. I am told that Hackworth and Burrese have a long-standing feud going on and that every time something is said or written about Hackworth on the internet, he blames Burrese. I have gone on record repeatedly, stating that I am not Burrese. I’m just not, and no amount of Hackworth saying I am will make it so.

I am not Burrese.

Sorry, Richard, I’m just not.

I hope you can deal with the frustration.

The only explanation I can think of is the Richard needs the publicity. A cursory glance at Richard’s various web sites reveals a startling lack of interest in him or what he does. If “likes” on his myriad Facebook sites are an indication, his presense or “footprint” is laughably small. None of his posts seem to garner more than a few
“likes” or comments, and most of those come from a predictable group of nut-huggers, fellow frauds, and (I’m guessing) paid responses from Korea.

By contrast, Richards “competitors” in the Hapkido world all seem to have their own thriving little communities, driving easily ten to a hundred times more traffic on their sites (using the “like” and “comment” o-meter), depending on the content.

Richard simply isn’t relevant anymore…if he ever was.

Which he wasn’t.

You’d think a Hapkido instructor in his sixties, who should be figuring out his retirement instead of lurking on the internet, would have better things to do…