Airleaf Victims & Supporters

January 5, 2008

Dear Airleaf Victims and Supporters,

First, let me wish you all a happy New Year filled with health, happiness, and success. As the New Year of 2008 begins, we have gained an impressive new number of Airleaf Victims this week. We are now at 348 victims and growing daily. Welcome to all of our new members. You are part of a wonderful group of people who are seeking justice against Carl Lau, the owner of Airleaf, which includes restitution of our money that we invested and criminal charges for the fraudulence perpetrated on us.

This week, I had a very excellent conversation with the US Postal Inspection agency in Washington D.C. They were distressed when I told them about our plight, and very receptive. The postal inspectors can pursue criminal charges for interstate mail fraud. But this is something that requires you to take a few moments to do.

The postal form applies to people who received any mail through Airleaf via the mail, not email. Most of you have told me that you received mail from them such as promotional advertisements or your contracts through the mail. If you saved a copy of the advertisements or your contract, please print out this postal form and send it to the address listed on the second page. You will also need to include copies of any mail that you have saved. If you don’t have the envelope it came in, don’t worry about it—send what you have. To help you in this process, I am attaching a “cheat sheet” for you to print out where I will tell you line by line what to fill in.
The link for the post office form:

Post office Link:

http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/radDocs/ps8165.pdf

This link will take you to the form that you need to PRINT OUT on your printer. There are 3 pages, but only the first two have information to be filled out. The reason for printing it out instead of doing it online is that you have to send in the hard-copy with the advertisements or contracts you received in the mail. If you have trouble doing this or don’t have a printer, please write to me and I will print it out for you and either help you fill it out and send it to you to sign or send it directly to you with the directions to fill it out. THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP, so please take the few moments to do it. If the post office receives at least 10 complaints, they will most likely open an investigation through the Indiana postal inspector. Think what 100 complaints will do! Please let me know if you take this important step so I can track it by writing to me at Bonkaye@aol.com.

Also, please make sure you take the important step I asked for last week if you haven’t done so by now. I need the city and state where you live so I can compile a database for future political or press actions for us. Just hit “reply” to this email and send me that information.

For those of you who are still willing, I listed the Oprah link last week. This is important because Oprah’s producers need to receive a lot of requests from us to bring this issue to light on her show. I think it’s important for her to put pressure on the state of Indiana since we haven’t had much luck. And who knows—maybe she’ll help us with our books. You don’t know until you ask. If you do this, please send me a note letting me know you did it so I can compile the numbers

Oprah Link: OPRAH LINK

Now I will share some interesting news of the week.
From Detective Buskirk on 1/04/07:

Hi Bonnie, Have no idea why you were having problems with email. I was getting dozens all vacation. Have a couple of hundred in regards to Airleaf. (Several of our authors had written to me that the email wasn’t going through, so I forwarded it to Detective Buskirk)

I am going to be allowed to continue the case so I will be trying to wrap things up in next month or so. Hoping to present the attorney an itemized list I got from each author early next week.

Hang in there, may be good news within the month.

Jeff

I thought this was excellent news for us.

Since Martinsville now has a new mayor, I wrote him a letter on Thursday. It said:

Dear Mayor Deckard,

First, let me wish you congratulations on your re-new job, as well as a Happy New Year.

My name is Bonnie Kaye, and I am the organizer of Airleaf Victims which can be seen at www.AirleafVictims.com. I didn't want to bother you prior to the time you took office, but now that you are in, I am hoping that you will help us.

There are presently close to 350 victims, which grow daily, who are part of my group who have been fraudulently victimized by Carl Lau and Airleaf Publishing who was operating in your city. Even though the company has closed, there are numerous problems associated with this closing which include the return of people's manuscripts, galleys, disks, and books. In addition, since I estimate the fraud to be at least one million dollars at this point, we are looking to see what criminal charges will be pressed and how soon we can expect to see that happen.

We have been patiently working with Jeff Buskirk in pursuing this investigation since August. I understand that he has been reassigned, so I would appreciate it if you can give me an update that I can share with my worried victims about the status of our case and who will be handling it. Also, can you advise me who the prosecutor that will be handling this case?

We are on the verge of getting national publicity on this story, and I would like to give you a chance to give me an accurate update of what is being done and when we can expect the results. Please understand that there are many frustrated people whose lives have been destroyed through this company. I am sorry that this has taken place in your city and that you, as mayor, are now faced with resolving this problem, but you are our main hope at this point of time.

Please feel free to email me at Bonkaye@aol.com or call me at either my home at 215-288-6959 or my cell phone at 215-498-2229.

I am attaching a compilation of my weekly updates from August until the present time. I'll include you on my weekly update list that comes out on Saturdays so you can keep up with our news.

Thank you in advance for coming to our aid.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Airleaf Victims
Organizer

I didn’t want the new mayor to think that we are going to stop our campaign just because Airleaf is closed down. I haven’t received a response as of today, but if I receive one this week, I’ll share it with you in my new update.

Ron Hawkins, our reporter friend from the Martinsville Reporter, did an update story in the paper on 12/29/07. I took excerpts to share with you since a lot of the article revolved around Detective Buskirk’s comments last week which you have already read.

Excerpts from an article in the Martinsville Reporter 12/29/07

Martinsville-based vanity publisher Airleaf Publishing and Book Selling has gone out of business, but author Bonnie Kaye says that was only one part of her agenda in drawing attention to the business.Carl Lau, who had been the owner of Airleaf, acknowledged last week that his controversial printing and marketing business had closed down. Additionally in an e-mail, Martinsville Police Department Detective Jeff Buskirk informed unhappy Airleaf customers who'd contacted him that the business was shutting down.In a voice mail message seeking to arrange an interview, Lau referred to himself as being from "Airleaf or what was Airleaf, with a little help from you. I think it was on its way down, so maybe not."

In the same message, Lau said he thought the paper's coverage of his business was biased.
Kaye, the counselor and author who created Airleafvictims.com, said the closing of Airleaf was just one of her three goals. Kaye also wants to see customers' money returned and for criminal charges to be filed against Airleaf, she said."We'll be using every resource we can get," Kaye said.The FBI office in Indianapolis has been contacted and agents there encouraged Airleaf victims to continue to file complaint forms, she said.

Although the authors might be able to get their books, it will probably be at a cost, according to Buskirk's e-mail. And Lau may be starting a new business or continuing an aspect of the old business.Buskirk's involvement in the case, however, might be over with Phil Deckard, who defeated incumbent Mayor Shannon Buskirk in the May GOP primary, being sworn in as mayor Monday afternoon. Jeff and Shannon Buskirk are brothers.Deckard said Thursday that Jeff Buskirk hasn't been informed about his future as a detective. Deckard was scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon with Darrell Davis, who will become the new police chief, to discuss the matter, he said.Deckard said his administration will follow up on ongoing investigations.That could include the possibility that Lau may still be marketing a books to film business. As part of the package sold to some authors, Airleaf offered to pitch books to film executives.

Kaye and others have questioned whether this ever happened, but Lau said it was a real service Airleaf provided.In an e-mail to the Reporter-Times, Buskirk wrote, "He advised he was still talking to people about the Hollywood promotions."Multiple attempts before and after Christmas were made to contact Lau after he left a second message, but those calls weren't returned.

Let’s go back to the sentence that says, “And Lau may be starting a new business or continuing an aspect of the old business.”

I often use a saying with the women whom I counsel that goes like this:

“If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck…it’s a duck, not a goose.”

So it shouldn’t shock you when I give you this latest news revealed by one of our Airleaf Victims. Bob Denton, former Airleaf employee that had a variety of jobs ranging from shipping clerk to salesman, has now opened his own publishing business. It’s called Mountain Valley Publishing LLC. And guess where it’s located? Right inside the Airleaf building at 35 Industrial Drive in Martinsville, Indiana. You can see his new site at www.MountainValleyPublishing.com. There you will see one (1) book listed, although I’m sure that soon you will see more books from unsuspecting Airleaf Victims who don’t know what’s going on with Airleaf. I found this totally AMAZING. The one book that is presently up there states: CLICK HERE TO ORDER (We will not ask for your payment information via the Internet. Please include your name and telephone number in the body of the e-mail.)

And when you click it, up comes Bob’s email address: bdenton308@insightbb.com

Now, if something doesn’t smell rotten in the state of Indiana, then you’ve lost your sense of smell. Bob Denton is now a publisher all on his own! AMAZING! And I thought he was enjoying his unemployment benefits after leaving Airleaf, while in fact, he was setting up his new business!

Anyway, if you think that Bob isn’t working with Carl Lau, then you’ll end up being a victim once again. Learn from the past—because in Martinsville, Indiana, the past is the present.

One of our Airleaf Victims, my friend Jack Powell, author of The Art of Dying, will be featured on a program on the History Channel on Sunday, January 13, 2008 at 8 p.m. The two-hour special, called Hillbilly: The Real Story, hosted by celebrity Billy Ray Cyrus, brings these mythic people to life through stories that span 300 years. Outcast immigrants, war heroes, isolated backwoodsmen, hard working miners, fast moving moon shiners, religious warriors, musicians and statesmen make up the rugged cast of characters.

In Jack’s own words, “The show is about who pioneered America in the days when there was nothing but Appalachia regions and the mighty souls who braved the elements and hardships of America. There are several segments of moonshiners, revenuers, coal Miners, drug dealers, marijuana growers, and law enforcement efforts to curtail a multi-billion industry in an economically starved area of the country.” Jack is on throughout the show, but is featured in the last 30 minutes. He has 44 years of working in the field of law enforcement including as a policeman, revenuer, private investigator, and a deputy U.S. Marshall. In spite of having an extensive career in law enforcement, Jack is also an Airleaf Victim!

I mention his because so many people write to me saying how embarrassed they feel because they were caught up in this scam. I like to remind you that our victims come from all different walks of life including lawyers, doctors, and even an Indian chief! There are stock brokers, clergymen, counselors, psychologists, media personalities, reporters, government people, psychics, educators, blue collar workers, and retirees. Don’t feel ashamed. You were taken in by the best of professional con people. Just try not to make the same mistake twice! Remember the ducks and the goose!

With love and hope,

Bonnie Kaye