Biography Steven (Steve) C. Markoff
Born September 1943
Mr. Markoff is a native of Los Angeles, California. A graduate of Los Angeles City College in 1964 with an Associate Arts degree.
His affiliations include: the precious metals and numismatic business for 50 years (1954-2005); Chairman and CEO of A-Mark Financial Corporation, a Santa Monica-based financial services company he founded in 1965 (originally named A-Mark Coin Company), that purchased the U.S. Wilkison Gold Pattern Collection and Redfield Silver Dollar hoard; the A-Mark Foundation, a private foundation he founded in 1997 became the parent of free searchable databases and other nonpartisan information covering interesting and important social issues and history, such information sites on George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Special Investigations Involving US Presidents Since 1973. In 2016, the Foundation founded the website, AboutTrump.org.
In 2004 Markoff helped found A-Mark Entertainment a company he co-chairs; and that year he also founded ProCon.org [www.ProCon.org], a 501(c)(3) public charity promoting critical thinking that as of 12-31-17, had been, or is being used by over 10,000 schools in over 90 countries. Mr. Markoff also has an interest in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, acquired in 2011. In 2018, Markoff founded Sexed.net, a website giving straight forward, sourced information about sex and sexually related issues.
1. Community/Public Service:
- Conceived (Jan. 2011) and financed the three Richard A. Clarke National Scholarly Monograph Contests of 2011, 2012 and 2013.
- Gave a talk (10/27/04) “Let’s Talk About Lying,” at Woodbury University (Burbank, CA).
- Gave a talk (3/24/04) “How to handle your attorney without losing your sleep, your mind and your bank account,” at Woodbury University (Burbank, CA).
- Founder and Chairman, ProCon.org, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation (founded on July 12, 2004) [Read a personal statement from Steve Markoff on the origins and background of ProCon.org].
- Member of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit ACLU Foundation of Southern California since 1979.
- Member of the Washington, D.C.-based Federal Task Force on Judicial Selection (which issued its report “Judicial Selection” in the Fall of 1999).
- Member of the Board of Directors of the UCLA Management Education Associates from 1986 to 1992.
- Conducted two seminars of “An Entrepreneur’s View” at The Gorbachev Foundation (Moscow, Russia) – The International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies in Oct. 1992.
- Member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit UCLA Graduate School of Management, Board of Visitors, 1986.
- Member of the Board of Directors of the nonprofit Hollywood Community Hospital from 1982 to 1984 (when it was sold to a for-profit group).
2. Public Service Educational Websites:
- SexEd.net – Online March 2018, this site offers basic information about sex, educating readers about the issues and giving them the tools to make better decisions about sex and sex-related topics in their lives.
- Bodfish.org – Online July 2013, this site gives local information on Bodfish, California, a town of 2,000 and the surrounding area.
- The U.S./Cuban Embargo – Started in 2011, this searchable database in Timeline format, contains over 600 sourced quotes about Cuba, and the U.S. embargo from government officials, journalists, authors, + others.
- 911plus.org; Online Nov. 2009 – This online database of the to-be-published reference book – whose working title is “9/11 Plus: Events Seemingly Related to 9/11 and Our Subsequent Invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq” – is a compilation of over 7,300 sourced quotes from 1947 to Sep. 11, 2011, surrounding our nation’s worst and most transformative tragedy of the 21st century.
- Celtic Mirrors.org – Founded July 2009, this site promotes the understanding of Celtic mirrors with pictures and related information about the 28 known Celtic mirrors.
- ProCon.org – Created July 2004, this site’s mission is to promote critical thinking, education and informed citizenship, setting forth pro and con arguments and related information about important controversial issues.
- OceanInfo.org – Online in 2015, this site features global and regional scientific information on our oceans.
- ObamaInfo.org – Online in 2015, this site has information on Barack Obama’s birth, school, and his early years, and his acts as president.
- BushInfo.org – Online in 2016, this site has information on George W. Bush’s birth, school, and his early years, and his acts as president.
3. Published Work:
- Published between May 1997 and Aug. 1998 several informational booklets examining different aspects of our nation’s drug policy:
A. 1998: “Marijuana Prohibition Has Not Curtailed Marijuana Use by Adolescents (Aug. 1998)”;
B. 1998: “If Every American Adult Smoked Marijuana and No Americans Smoked Tobacco, 367,050 Lives A Year Would Be Saved (June 1998)”;
C. 1998: “Addictiveness of Marijuana vs. Five Commonly Used Drugs (April 1998);
D. 1998: “Some of the Drugs America Takes (March 1998)”;
E. 1990: “Marijuana’s Contribution to Preventable Deaths in the U.S. in 1990 (Jan. 1998)”;
F. 1997: “Beer and Marijuana Consumption in the U.S. (Nov. 1997)”;
G. 1997: “Drugs are Part of the American Culture (Nov. 1997)”; and
H. 1997: “State-by-State Medical Marijuana Laws 1997 (June 1997)”.
- 1996: June 1996, the 2nd and last CowPie Asks was published titled “What Smells Like A Horse, But Goes To College? Hypocrisy?”
- 1996: February 1996, the first CowPie Asks was published. It was written to emulate Will Rogers’s folksy and friendly style, with a bit of humor, while commenting directly on a controversial issue of the day, with sharp analysis, saying what many might think but few would. The first CowPie, (Calf #1) was titled “Has the Federal bureaucracy grown that much?”
- 1991: “Making Firms Do It Your Way,” a common sense contract between a client and his lawyer that was published in the national magazine The American Lawyer in Dec. 1991.
- 1985: Through the Association of Media Accuracy, a nonprofit organization he co-founded in 1985 with Maury Weiner (Deputy Mayor under Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley), Mr. Markoff co-published the following reports in a pro/con format:
A. 1986: “Should Chief Justice Rose Bird Be Re-confirmed in the Upcoming November 4, 1986 California Election?,” in Sep. 1986, andB. 1988: “How Practical is Nuclear Power for Our Future?” in May 1988.
4. Four Books for publishing:
- The ACLU, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court
(Including the Wins and Losses of the ACLU at the Supreme Court in the 20th Century):
Much has been written about the ACLU, but few know what it does or how it does what it does. The work comes two different ways.
First, there is a three-volume, 2,100-page work, which covers the 765 cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court where the ACLU was involved during the 20th century. Each case is summarized in about three pages. Additionally, the work includes: how each of the 45 Supreme Court Justices voted on each of the 765 cases, the wins and losses of the ACLU by vote tally (i.e. 9 to 0, 8 to 1, 6 to 3) and by decade, based on whether the ACLU’s side won or lost. The work offers no opinions about the ACLU, but provides the information for others to analyze and debate.
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the Boalt Law School at Berkeley, recently wrote the two-page foreword for the work.
The related Summary manuscript of 200 pages, contains all the data and charts from the 2,100 pages, except it only has the analysis of three of the 765 cases as examples.
- The Case Against George W. Bush
This book chronicles the presidency of George W. Bush, through almost 600 quotes from over 90 authors and other information sources, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Hans Blix, head of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission from March 2000 to June 2003; former President George W. Bush himself; former Vice President Dick Cheney; former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; and writers and journalists such as Steve Coll, Frank Rich, Craig Unger and Bob Woodward. The author presents detailed evidence of three crimes committed by George W. Bush during his presidency:
– His failure to take the many warnings of coming terror attacks on our country seriously.
– Taking our country, by misleading and false information, into an unnecessary and disastrous 2003 war with Iraq.
– Breaking domestic and international laws by approving the torturing of people thought to have needed information of terrorists and their plans.
While the author lays out his case of the crimes, he leaves it up to each reader to decide on the probable guilt, or not, of George W. Bush and his actions and non-actions regarding the alleged crimes.
3. All About Sex
Sex is odd. Though we’re inundated with sexualized content in our society, most of us really know little about it. This work, meant as a handbook for people young and old, is a compendium of 10 straightforward explanations on each of 60 topics. The topics run from Abstinence, Anal and Asexuality to Low-T (low male testosterone), Making Sex Last and Massages to Sexual Positions, STD/STI, and Wet Dreams/ Nocturnal Emissions. The information in this book flows from the author’s website, www.sexed.net.
4. Official Anti-Jewish Acts Throughout History (410 B.C. to 2000 A.D.)
For several thousand years, Jews have been discriminated against in many parts of the world. What isn’t well known or documented is the extent of that discrimination. This book’s goal is to find and list, with brief summaries in English, all the Official Anti-Jewish Acts in the world through the year 2000. The author and his researchers continue poring through books on the topic, contacting international libraries, Jewish organizations, and expert resources to compile, so far, more than 1,500 Official Anti-Jewish Acts from over 40 different countries and geographic areas.
5. Other Events
- 2013: Inducted in the PNG Coin Dealers hall of fame.
- 2008: As Deputy Commissioner of civil marriage, married his uncle Don Price to Wilkie Pretorious on July 19, 2008.
- 2005: Played first round of golf (18 holes) on Mar. 13, 2005 (with Bruce McNall, Mike Marvin and Marv Dauer), and shot 135. Shot 113 (with a friendly scorekeeper), on Mar. 20, 2005. The other players that day were Bruce McNall, Marty McSorley and Marv Dauer.
- 2000: As Deputy Commissioner of civil marriage, married son Chris to Joanna Palica on Nov. 25, 2000.
- 1996, Dec.: Completed a six-hour training course in automatic weapons on Dec. 21, 1996.
- 1995: Flew first and last air combat aerial dog fights, pulling 4 1/2 G’s, browned out (lost color vision for a minute), and had a lighter barf bag than my opponent when we landed.
- 1994: Sent a video copy of “Sex, Drugs and Democracy“, a Jonathan Blank film, to all 535 members of Congress.
- 1992: On May 12, 1992, in Washington, D.C., addressed the Advisory Committee on CFTC/State Cooperation on the question of lending on precious metals.
- 1983: Made solo hang glide from 100′ hill on Apr. 24, 1983.
- 1979: Arbitraged the 1979 United and American Airlines 50% Off Coupons.
- 1978: Made it into the 1978 edition of the Guinness book of records, for purchasing the unique U.S. 1907 Double Eagle pattern from the Dr. Wilkison Collection for about $900,000.
- 1977: Joined the Sports Car Club of America in 1977, and began racing Formula Fords.
- 1976: Made it into the 1977 edition of the Guinness book of records for the Jan. 1976 $7.4M purchase of the Redfield Silver Dollar collection – 407,000 U.S. silver dollars weighing 11 tons.
- 1971: Received SCUBA Certification on July 22, 1971 from County of Los Angeles – Certification #013612.
- 1970: Honorably Discharged from the US Army on June 5, 1970.
- 1966: Made solo parachute jump from 2,800 feet on July 31, 1966.
6. Hobbies:
- Archery
- Golf
- Ping Pong