AIRLEAF UPDATES, Friends & Victims November 10, 2007

November 10, 2007
Dear Airleaf Victims Friends,

First, I would like to welcome our eight new authors. As of today, we have 105 authors who are members of our Airleaf Victims organization—and we are getting noticed! People are finding our website, and as of today, we have had over 1,900 visitors to our website @ www.AirleafVictims.com. This week, I updated the website and changed the text to note some of the fraudulence that I have shared with you. Also, a number of new stories have been added so please check it out. The more stories we add, the more we will be noticed. If you would like to add your story, please email me at Bonkaye@aol.com and let me know.

When you look at the updated website, on the bottom you will see our new award that we have received from the prestigious organization Preditors and Editors. Earlier in the week, they sent me this note:

Your site, Airleaf Victims, has been found deserving of our highest award for your service in support of writers. We commend you and your site for its efforts to protect and support writers by exposing those who prey upon them and organizing efforts to counter their activities. Furthermore, we hope this award demonstrates that some members of the writing community applaud you and your efforts.

Please feel free to display the attached award on your site. You may use the following code or your own for display purposes. Should the attached GIF not transmit properly, just let us know and we'll post it in Preditors & Editors (tm) so you can copy it there as each award is individually customized.

Additionally, your site's name will be enshrined with other honored sites on the Editor's Award Recipients page on our next update.

Cordially,
Dave Kuzminski, Editor
Preditors & Editors ™

http://anotherealm.com/prededitors

Another valuable author’s website, Writer Beware, sent this letter:

Dear Bonnie:

I wanted you to know that I've left my contact info with the authorities who are investigating Airleaf, both civil and criminal, offering Writer Beware's help in making this case. I hope they will get back to me. We've had quite a bit of experience in this kind of fight, as you know.
I salute you in your fight, and I am really impressed with your efforts. You are a very admirable person.

Good luck, and let me know if I can help further.
Best,
Ann C. Crispin
Chair, Writer Beware
www.writerbeware.com

Thank you, Ann, for your support and encouragement.

An example of the good we are doing came to me this week from Donna in Florida. She allowed me to share this with you:

Dear Bonnie,

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have found your website. In late August, I contacted Airleaf to publish and promote my book. When I looked at their website, they seemed to have everything in place including marketing and film promotions. I carefully read all of their wonderful success stories, and the representative I spoke to at the time told me how excited they were to have over 30 books with film options that are in production. The one thing that stopped me from paying them at the time was my lack of money. I told them that in October, I would have enough to buy their package for nearly $2,000.00 and I would get back to them at that time.

To me, $2,000.00 is a fortune. I am a single mother with two children who were born with chronic illnesses. My book is about coping when a child is ill. After speaking to the Airleaf consultant, I was encouraged to do this as soon as possible and that my book would be taken to Hollywood where it most likely would be bought because of the type of subject. Airleaf promised to promote my book, and chances are, it would become a top seller. With this is mind, I sent letters of help out to all of my family, asking them to help me with this project. I assured them in time I’d be able to pay them back when my book was made into a movie.

I was able to raise the money as of the last week in October thanks to the generosity of many people who believed in my work. I misplaced the phone number for Airleaf, so I decided to look it up on their website. When I went to Google to check, I found your advertisement about the Airleaf Victims. My heart went out to all of the people who were betrayed by Airleaf. After reading their stories, I knew that I was not going to become one more of them. Thank you so much for saving me the same heartbreak as your other authors. I hope all of you keep fighting, not just to save yourselves, but also to save other authors like me.

With blessings,
Donna in Florida

We are definitely making progress as each day passes. It appears that there are only five or six people left at Airleaf down from 30 last year at this time. In fact, according to an inside source, the production department has closed down until more money comes in. That means if you are waiting for Airleaf to produce your book, you will not be seeing it. And yet, new authors are constantly being solicited and robbed like we were.

This week, six of you wrote to me telling me that you have requested that Airleaf remove your books from their website the week. One of our authors received this comment back after sending Carl a letter to have his book removed from the website:

November 7, 2007

Airleaf Publishing and Book Selling:

Please remove my book from your website, and please make no more sales of my book from here on, presently and in the future. Your service for whatever reason has been a dismal failure.

This was the response he received:

I have instructed the web person to have them removed today.
I’m sorry that things have not worked out.

Thanks
Carl

I thought this comment was most revealing. “I’m sorry that things have not worked out.” Isn’t it interesting that through all of the fraudulence that Carl Lau has perpetrated, the best he can come up with is “…things have not worked out.” In other words, Carl takes no responsibility for what he has done to us. He doesn’t say, “I’m sorry, I’ll try to correct things,” or “I’m sorry, I’ll return your money.” Just that “things have no worked out.” His sociopathic behavior is so evident here.

One of the ways that you can help our campaign is to write to Airleaf and ask to have your book removed from their website. Remember—having your book available on the Airleaf website misleads other innocent victims who will have our same fate. Also, keeping your book up on the Airleaf website will only allow Carl Lau to keep collecting the money that is owed to you which will keep him in business even longer. You can write to Carl at Carl@Airleaf.com. Please let me know when you have taken this step so I can add it to our records.

I had the pleasure of hearing from another Airleaf ex-employee this week who was delighted to find our website. She shared some valuable information with me that I am sharing with you. Although she only worked there a short time last year, she quit when she started to see the fraudulence.

I am a former employee who when I found out what was going on, left Airleaf. I don't know what of the following if any you have already heard. I was in promotions and I had many compliments on the ones I did, because I would actually read the books.

It started going down hill when they told me I was taking too long, and to skim the book or just use the questionnaire and come up with something. At that time, when an author would get the attorney general involved, Carl would give a heads up to one of the managers, and she would go to whatever department where there was the hold up and demand something by the end of the day. It didn't have to be good; we just had to show we did something so the author could not reclaim their money.

Next I learned of Gammadyne which is the system Airleaf used to send out the promos. This is a long list of spam addresses; they had no official contact with anyone they promised the authors.

There were a number of other revelations that I will share later in my correspondence with this former employee who had the courage to reach out to us to try to help our investigation so we can find justice.

On Monday, I spoke to the Assistant Attorney General in Indiana, Terry Tolliver, when he returned from his vacation. He didn’t seem very committal about anything—he just stated that the investigation is going on and nothing can happen until it is completed. I also contacted the California Attorney General’s office to begin an investigation on Lite Stone Entertainment which is helping defraud Airleaf customers. I filed the appropriate papers to get that investigation started.

My dear authors, I know that the wheels of justice spin slowly, and it can get discouraging. Please be assured that I am devoting at least three hours every day to uncover all of the fraud going on. This time includes contacting Airleaf authors one at a time so they can join our cause and speaking to our members as much as possible. I only regret that many of you don’t have the same privilege that I have of getting to know so many of you. I have been able to find lifetime friendships with some of you. Hopefully, one day, we will have a gathering to celebrate the demise of Airleaf and the criminal charges against Carl Lau. Please hang in there with me until we complete our mission.

With love and hope,

Bonnie Kaye