AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE APRIL 19, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
We are now at 431 Airleaf Victims. I'd like to wish a Happy Passover to all of our Jewish members of the group.
This week, I will be off from my regular job reviewing all of your surveys that you sent to me a couple of months ago in order to identify information to help the government agencies investigating our case. I am hoping to find key documentation that will help us prove the fraudulence that we are claiming. I will let you know some of my results next week.
Thank all of you who told me you wrote to 60 Minutes. If you didn't have a chance to do so, please do so this week. Their email address is: 60m@cbsnews.com. I want them to understand the enormity of our case when it comes to fraudulence. Please put in the subject box, "A Victim of Airleaf Publishing Fraud," or something similar. The more stories they receive, the more convincing our campaign will be.
Today, the Martinsville Reporter released another update. Our reporter friend, Ron Hawkins, has interviewed a number of people including some former employees who were there during Airleaf's last moments.
Feds investigating Airleaf, former employee says
By Ronald Hawkins | rhawkins@reportert.com
Saturday April 19, 2008
Martinsville
At least one former employee of the defunct Airleaf Publishing and Book Selling company has been questioned as a part of a federal investigation into the company's practices, according to that former employee.
The potential criminal filings against the Martinsville-based, vanity publishing and marketing business would be in addition to the multiple civil actions filed against owner Carl Lau and the company he operated until late last year.
In an interview, former Airleaf vice president and sales person Dawn Rodgers said she was questioned on Good Friday by U.S. Postmaster General investigators regarding Airleaf. The investigation is being done in conjunction with the FBI, she said.
Martinsville Police Department Capt. Jeff Buskirk, who investigated Airleaf for local law enforcement authorities, said he's turned over his materials to the FBI.
Bonnie Kaye, a Philadelphia-based author who started airleafvictims.com, said she'd contacted the FBI about Airleaf.
FBI special agent Wendy Osborne, however, said, "The FBI doesn't confirm or deny investigations."
An insider's story
Former Airleaf vp Rodgers worked for two periods at Airleaf. In the first, she had been promoted to vice president of marketing before she left and in the second was a marketing sales person. She was one of the last employees to leave before Lau shut down the business.
Author Kaye said she believes Rodgers shares some of the blame with Lau.
"She was taking money under fraudulent pretenses," Kay said. "She continued taking money after production shut down."
Rodgers said she is as much of a victim as the Airleaf customers who didn't receive the books or marketing services they were promised.
"If anyone's a victim," Rodgers said, "it's me."
Rodgers, who is currently unemployed, said Lau still owes her money.
"He owes everybody," she said.
Lau didn't respond to requests for comments on this story. In a previous interview, however, Lau said after co-founder and Airleaf Executive Vice President Brien Jones left, the business started heading downhill. Lau said Jones, who started his own vanity publishing business in Bloomington, tried to persuade former Airleaf customers not to do business with him.
Jones has said that's not the case
Rodgers, who worked with Jones, said the business headed downhill after Jones left in January 2007, but the cause was the loss of Jones' skills. The sole bad guy in the story, she said, is Lau.
"He didn't have the integrity to run a good business ," Rodgers said. "I wish Carl would accept responsibility for what he did. ...
"I don't think Brien was one of the bad guys. He cared about the business. It went crazy after he left. ...I'd like Carl to be held responsible."
Rodgers said she believed in Lau until the end, when things began to rapidly unravel.
About Airleaf
Airleaf Publishing and Book Selling was a vanity publishing firm based in Martinsville that published and marketed books. Established nearly six years ago, it shut its 35 Industrial Drive offices in mid-December. Many of Airleaf's authors were previously unpublished. Airleaf offered packages for authors that included printing and for an additional price promised it would pitch books to movie studios. Other packages included promises of ad placements in major newspapers and magazines along with interviews on national radio shows and more.
"I believed in what I did, otherwise I wouldn't have done it," Rodgers said. "We all did what we had to do. We cared more about the company than Carl."
In an interview Thursday, Jones said since he started his own business he's had 400 clients and there have been no complaints.
Investigation questioned
Jones questioned whether there is an investigation.
"No one has ever contacted me," Jones said. "I would think at some point someone would have. ...I would think I would be one of the first people they contacted."
Rodgers said the investigators "didn't go into much" about what charges there might be against Law.
The founders of Airleaf, which started as Bookman Publishing and Marketing, had good intentions when they started the business, Rodgers said. Most of the marketing promotions such as cruises and appearances at book shows and even pitches to Hollywood studios happened.
"I don't believe either (Lau or Jones) started with the intent to defraud," Rodgers said.
Martinsville resident Bob Denton is helping some authors receive their books. Denton left Airleaf a month before it closed, he said, but still manages the building and managed it before Lau acquired it. The building is for sale.
Denton worked for Lau for 4-1/2 years in sales, product shipping and receiving, he said. Since leaving, Denton started Mountain Valley Publishing, a publishing firm that he operates out of his home and has some of Airleaf's former clients.
Denton said he left Airleaf because he knew if he sold a publishing package, the money wasn't there to produce it. Denton agreed with Rodgers and Lau that the business started to decline after Jones left.
"At first, it was a good business," Denton said. "It got a lot of people's work published. I don't think they intended to defraud anybody.
"They just ran out of money. Why? I don't know. Carl made a lot of bad business decisions." That was the end of the story.
Here is my response. Please feel free to post your own response to this story.
My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of the group Airleaf Victims found at www.AirleafVictims.com. I would like to clarify some of the issues in this story.
It's not just a matter of Carl Lau being a bad businessman; it's a matter of his operation knowingly committing fraudulence against our 431 authors. We do hold Lau responsible because he held the purse strings; however, other employees were totally aware that services were not being delivered nor were they ever intended to be delivered. These employees include the ones told by Lau to pretend he was in Europe while he sat behind his desk, never saw an ad in the NY Times or LA Times for Airleaf books, or never waved Bon Voyage to the people who paid for the Carnival Cruise that never was booked. By knowing fraud was going on and not reporting it to authorities, they were participating in it or covering it up.
Dawn Rogers claims to also be a victim by comparing the loss of a paycheck to the loss of people's years of hard work, throwing money away down the drain that they saved for their futures, and the pain of calling dozens of times and being ignored because services were not being delivered. Let's be for real. Ms. Rogers was there until the very last day begging people for their credit cards selling them packages that were never going to happen--and she knew it.
Let's not turn the bad guys into the heroes and the victors into the victims. The employees of Airleaf profited off of our innocence. Two of them for sure were in Hollywood having great sex in a hotel while they were supposed to be selling our books to Hollywood producers. Those escapades were paid for by our hard earned money.
Everyone who took part in misleading us should be ashamed of themselves. So far, I haven't heard anyone say a simple, "I'm sorry." That might be a good starting point. If ex-employees are looking for pity, this is not the place to find it. Start taking responsibility for your action, and maybe then maybe we'll feel something besides contempt.
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.That's the end of my story! Here's the link for the paper in case you would like to post your own comments:
Link to Martinsville Reporter story:
By the way, Bob Denton has changed his email address and wanted me to share that with you. You can reach him at: bdenton308@comcast.net. If you sent Bob an email recently and didn't get a response, please resend it to that address because it may have gotten lost in transition.
One of our readers wrote to me stating that Carl Lau sent her back a disk but it was blank. She was wondering if any of our other authors had the experience. If so, please let me know. Another author sent me a note that Carl Lau was requesting $2.50 per book. Once again, if you are being asked for money for your books by Carl Lau, please let me know.
This week, I'd like to introduce two new books by our Victim's group. The first book is by John Krismer. John used my new publisher, CCB Publishing, for his book (CCBPublishing.com). Here is the cover and synopsis:
Few realize a New World Order plans to replace our constitution with a Single World Government, nor that our Federal Reserve Bank is privately owned and is not subject to oversight by Congress or the President. Its stockholders include the Rockefellers, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers of New York; the Rothschild’s of London and Berlin; the Lazard Brothers of Paris; Israel Seiff of Italy; the Kuhn & Loeb Company of Germany; and the Warburgs of Hamburg and Amsterdam, earning almost two billion dollars a day in interest as they buy off our dysfunctional Congress and intentionally level this great nation.
George H. W. Bush, the undisputed “Overlord” of the Shrub Dynasty, in his State of the Union Message in 1991 said: “What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea – a new world order.” Did We the People ever agree to this treasonous act of turning over our nation’s sovereignty to a Single World Government?
About the Author
John R. Krismer, MHA-LFACHE is founder and CEO of Health Systems Institute, consulting with governments, hospitals, clinics, and professional organizations. He has conducted hundreds of educational institutes, and served as a principal investigator, researching the health record database system, which involved four major universities. He has served as CEO of several hospitals and corporations, and as a board member of two health insurance companies. He has been referred to as a visionary ahead of his time.
Another one of our victims, Terry Levine, has a new book that will be available on the first day of May. Terry is a well-known personal coach, and you can view her website at http://www.CoachInstitute.com. Terry sent this note:
I am asking you for one favor please. My new book Coaching is For Everyone is available on Amazon.com on May 1 and is by far my most exciting and best book yet.
My request is that you help me make this book an Amazon.com best seller on May 1. I am not asking you to buy a bunch of stuff - just one copy of a book that you will love and if you just send me (Terri@TerriLevine.com) your receipt from Amazon.com I will send you a FREE ticket to my next event worth $500!
Please ask everyone in your network, in your data base and email lists to do this for me. Together, on the May 1st release date, we can really ring the bell in the coaching world and make my pride and joy a number 1 bestseller on amazon.com.
I appreciate you and your assistance in making my dream come true and sharing my finest work with the world. Here is the link to my book on amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Everyone-Learn-Your-Coach/dp/1600373968/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208296251&sr=8-2
My Goal Is YOUR Success!
Terri Levine, The Guru of Coaching SM
President
Comprehensive Coaching U, Inc.
727 Mallard Place, North Wales, PA 19454 Phone:877-401-6165
Create a great home based business coaching clients over the phone!
Visit http://www.CoachInstitute.com today!
Good luck to both of our new authors. I'm happy to publicize any new books that you are creating. Just let me know!
Next week I'll report on more news with our case. Have a good week, and keep up the faith. Justice will be ours!
Love, Bonnie
Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 23, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 408 Airleaf Victims in our group. Welcome to our new members.
Tonight and tomorrow evening on the History Channel, you can watch our own Jack Powell in a special on Hillbillys--The Real Story hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus. It's a fascinating documentary which will teach you about a little known part of our country's history. It airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Check your local listings.
First, I want to thank you, as a group, for taking the time to write to Indiana's U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison last weekend and throughout the week. I want to go over his response to us to clarify where he stands and where we as a group stand.
Last weekend, I sent Mr. Morrison this email before I asked you to do the same:
From: BonKaye@aol.com [mailto:BonKaye@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:23 PM
To: USAINS-Webmaster
Subject: From Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed., Organizer Airleaf Victims
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I am respectfully requesting that your office communicate with me as the organizer of our group of 405 authors in the Airleaf Victims group. My website is at www.AirleafVictims.com.
I had originally been in touch with Steve DeBrota, but my phone calls for the past two weeks are going unreturned. Perhaps he is no longer on the case.
Please let me know if your office is assisting our victims who have been taken in excess of one million dollars by the fraudulent practices of Carl Lau and Airleaf Publishing. You can check with the FBI and Postal authorities through Captain Jeff Buskirk in Martinsville, Indiana, who has put our case together.
We are very distraught at the responses of the Indiana government agencies including the Attorney General's office, the Governor's office, and the two State Senator offices. We are frustrated and would like to know how you can help us.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Organizer, Airleaf Victims
Here was his response on Tuesday, February 19, 2008:
Dear Ms. Kaye:
This matter has not yet been referred to our office by any law enforcement agency. We have seen no reports nor results of any interviews. We are not an investigative unit but are dependent upon work-ups by groups like the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service, both whom you have involved in this.
The Assistant United States Attorney you contacted, Steve DeBrota, was the duty attorney for the office on the day you called. He is not assigned this case, because, as I explained above, no investigative agency has referred it to us. Your telephone calls have been unreturned for the past few weeks, because Mr. DeBrota has been committed to a multi-victim, child exploitation case in the northern part of our district. That case was referred to us and prosecution has commenced.
I am sure the Governor, the Indiana Attorney General, and the offices of Senators Bayh and Lugar are also “distraught.” None of these entities have any criminal jurisdiction in Indiana. The only entities that do—and have relevance here—is the Morgan County, Indiana, Prosecuting Attorney and our office. What can these offices you contacted do for you?
I hope that this group has retained counsel to sue the responsible parties and attempt to seize any relevant assets prior to adjudication on the merits. The burden of proof is lower than in a criminal prosecution and speed of initiation of suit can be faster. Furthermore, restitution is more limited under the criminal law. A successful criminal prosecution will not result in restitution for lost profits.
Finally, your ability to marshal an e-mail campaign that fills our webpage mailbox with more than 120 e-mails may be impressive but unproductive. One referred to me as Attorney General and castigated me for failing to return your calls. I have never spoken to you and I am not the Attorney General. Another told me his books were printed and shipped, but 100 of them were defective. (This is more evidence of breach of contract than criminal fraud) Consolidated communication will save time. Feel free to distribute this e-mail to your group.
We will work through this as we are provided with sufficient information.
Sincerely,
Timothy M. Morrison, Acting U.S. Attorney
I felt somewhat "stung" by this response. I thought it was petty of Mr. Morrison to bring up two insignificant points of being referred to as the AG and the defective books. Instead, I would have liked for him to note that he was very saddened to hear about the fraudulence that our group had been part of and that he would do whatever he could to check this for us. Instead, he was asking me what the offices we contacted could do for us.
He acknowledged that my phone calls had not been returned because the attorney on duty was assigned to a more pressing case. I can understand that—but all it takes is communication to relay that. A call back from his department explaining this would have been sufficient and avoided the mass emails. I am not a party of one calling on my own behalf—I am representing a group of over 400 people who are looking for answers.
Mr. Morrison made the comment that restitution is more limited under criminal law, suggesting we find an attorney to sue for us. This was my response that I sent to him later that day:
Dear Mr. Morrison,
Thank you for your quick response to the Airleaf Victims. Quite frankly, we are very disgusted and frustrated at this point. Other than the police captain in Martinsville, Captain Jeff Buskirk, we have heard virtually no news about our case for over six months. We are not versed in the legal means of getting action in Indiana. We do know how virtually every government official has told us that this is not his responsibility and bumped us over to the next official.
Please understand that we are not in a position to hire an attorney. Many of our members are elderly and disabled, and they have invested every last penny they have into this predatory publisher who has now closed down. An attorney would cost us a lot of money, and most of us are tapped out from investing our money in Airleaf. With a company that has closed, it's hard to find an attorney who wants to take the case because there will be limited assets to retrieve. We understand that the owner, Mr. Carl Lau, is claiming bankruptcy.
At this point, we know that there are limited funds that may be returned. Regardless, we would like to see criminal charges pressed against Carl Lau and other employees who knowingly defrauded our authors. We need to send a message that is loud and clear that robbing people of their hopes, dreams, and money is not an allowable practice in Indiana where so many print-on-demand companies are now set up or setting up.
It was not my intention to clog your email system, but rather to make a mass plea to you to help us. We are feeling very lost in this matter. It seems to me that if one person was robbed in your state, action would be taken. We have over 400 people at this point who are part of our group who have been robbed, and yet all we hear is that it's no one's real responsibility and we should get an attorney.
Maybe you can still help us by contacting the FBI and Postal Authorities to make sure that this case is being investigated and that the criminal (s) will not be allowed to go unpunished. I will not have people write to you anymore. If I need information, I will come to you directly and relay your messages. If there is any information that I can provide for you that will help this case move along, please let me know.
Thank you for listening, and I appreciate whatever you can do for us.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
www.AirleafVictims.com
As a P.S., I received confirmation from 23 more of you who sent out the note to Mr. Morrison during the week, so nearly 150 of us have written to that office. There is no need to send out an email at this point if you haven't done so. Mr. Morrison certainly knows about the Airleaf Victims. One thing that this experience is teaching me at this stage of my life is how wrong my perceptions of government were. Morrison stated: "I am sure the Governor, the Indiana Attorney General, and the offices of Senators Bayh and Lugar are also “distraught.” None of these entities have any criminal jurisdiction in Indiana." This was amazing to me. I never realized that these political offices have no criminal jurisdiction. Did you?
On a personal note, I do know that things are moving, even if the wheels are spinning slowly for our satisfaction. Many of you are left in limbo at the moment because you are anxious to receive your files and books. I am hoping that Captain Buskirk will have some news for us this week.
Some of us received forms this week from the Attorney General's office once again called Consumer Complaint Forms. I called Tom Irons from the AG's office who is the most responsive of all government officials I have dealt with. He is checking to see why this second form was sent to us since we filled out the original form online and then received a hard copy form to fill out after that. He will get back to me this week, so you can wait until you hear from me before you fill this one out. Please be assured that since Tom took over our case a few weeks ago that he is working on getting our case together. Hopefully, he will be able to pursue a civil case on our behalf.
One of our authors wrote to me about a publishing company, Capstone Fiction, for Christian FICTION. This is in NO WAY to be confused with Capstone Productions, the Hollywood movie company that Carl Lau claimed he was working with. A number of our victims fit into this category. I checked out the company through the Internet and our wonderful resource Victoria Strauss to see if this would be a viable avenue for some of our authors. When I felt comfortable with the results, I wrote to one of the owners, Ramona Tucker, about our situation and asked if our Christian fiction authors could apply to be published with them. Here are some excerpts from Ramona's response:
Hi Bonnie,
I am SO saddened to hear about the experience of your group members with AIrleaf! I hate hearing such stories (and unfortunately, in 25 years of publishing, I’ve heard quite a few of them.) I had never heard of Airleaf, but was able to read through your website information about it just now), but it sounds to me like it was a “self-publisher” (in other words, each of your writers PAID that company to publish their book. There wasn’t really any personal investment from the publisher that they loved/believed in that book. Such things happening—and authors getting taken for a ride because they are so desperate to be published that they’re willing to pay anything—are one of the many reasons we launched Capstone! To give new authors an opportunity to publish and to slowly start growing their reader base…since every good thing takes its time! Capstone is not about “competing” to get the top book/top author; it’s about our passion to get wonderful books that we believe could make it nationally--books with fresh plots, quirky characters into the hands of readers of a broad spectrum of readers. And without the “fear” that if they don’t sell enough the first year that the book will get “axed” by the publisher, as is happening more and more frequently these days.)
Capstone is a one-year-old company (we celebrated our first anniversary on Dec. 31, 2007) but founded by myself and Jeff Nesbit, both veterans of the publishing industry. You can find out a lot about us by googling our names, Capstone Fiction, and going to our website at www.Capstonefiction.com.
Who is Capstone? We are a traditional publisher (in other words, just like Tyndale, Zondervan, Nelson, etc.); when we sign an author’s work, that means we believe in the work and feel strongly that it needs to have a chance in the marketplace (whether it sells 500 copies, 5,000 copies, or 50,000 copies over its lifetime!). Our primary mission is to create opportunities for new, talented Christian writers, while also promoting leading-edge fiction by established Christian authors. Today’s market is very tough for new writers. Most publishing houses, due to tightening the belts with the economy, sign/promote 2-3 top authors, but there’s little room for anyone new (that doesn’t already have a huge platform) to make an inroad. A walk through any Christian bookstore will show you that many of the titles are by the same authors. Also, Christian/inspirational publishers publish very little in the realms of sci-fi, fantasy, juvenile/children’s literature. And it is rare for a publisher to produce a 4-color children’s book since Berryman Graphics (the one huge color press) shut their doors a couple years ago (yet Capstone has produced 2 color titles in the first year of our publication. In a process that normally takes 3 years (6-9 months to read/acquire a manuscript, 3 months for a contract, 6-9 months in editorial/design, and 6-9 months in production, Capstone had already produced 47 titles (going through the same process of acquiring, contracting, editing, designing, etc., that all traditional publishers use) by the end of our first year, on Dec. 31, 2007!
Our titles represent numerous genres of inspirational fiction: historical, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, literary, mystery, biblical, detective, humor, legal/political thrillers, biblical, and suspense. And in a day when, in light of economic realities, publishers have chosen to publish very few children’s and young adult titles, we have published 10 titles spanning those categories.
So, Bonnie, that’s a little bit about us. (And probably more than you wanted!) Take a look at our site, too. We’re straightforward kind of folks. We believe in honesty, integrity, have a passion for broadening the scope of inspirational publishing and giving new authors of brilliantly crafted novels (fiction, only—for all ages). We would welcome submission from any writers, once you and they have checked us out. (And no, we are not an “e” publisher, to combat that notion: when you order a Capstone title from amazon.com for example, you get it in exactly the same timeframe you’d get any other book you order, and in hard copy!) We also work with one of the most creative and brilliant head designers in the publishing business, who has over 22 years in the field, as well (and you can see the result in the wonderful Capstone titles pictured on our site). You’ll find submission guidelines, etc., online, as well. The only thing that has really changed in the interim (which we haven’t been able to update in the flurry), is that it takes us about 4-6 weeks to respond to queries, since we were recently deluged with 800 manuscripts. Word is getting around, and it’s very exciting to see the wonderful manuscripts coming our way!
Thanks for writing, Bonnie! I hope this information is helpful to you and the rest of your group.
If you have a Christian fiction book and would like to submit your query, you can visit their site at www.CapstoneFiction.com. It is a very informative and easy to use site.
To date, I have received 163 surveys back from you. Thank you so much for taking the time to fill these out. I will be compiling the data during the first week of March and getting back to you with the results. If you haven't sent yours in, there is still time. You can do it by email or snail mail. If you need help, just let me know.
The most important thing to remember is that we have to remain vigilant and not get discouraged by the lack of visible progress. Carl Lau is counting on time being on his side and our frustration making us give up. Remember—good things come to those who wait, and they will certainly come to us.
With love and hope,
Bonnie
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 408 Airleaf Victims in our group. Welcome to our new members.
Tonight and tomorrow evening on the History Channel, you can watch our own Jack Powell in a special on Hillbillys--The Real Story hosted by Billy Ray Cyrus. It's a fascinating documentary which will teach you about a little known part of our country's history. It airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Check your local listings.
First, I want to thank you, as a group, for taking the time to write to Indiana's U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison last weekend and throughout the week. I want to go over his response to us to clarify where he stands and where we as a group stand.
Last weekend, I sent Mr. Morrison this email before I asked you to do the same:
From: BonKaye@aol.com [mailto:BonKaye@aol.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:23 PM
To: USAINS-Webmaster
Subject: From Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed., Organizer Airleaf Victims
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I am respectfully requesting that your office communicate with me as the organizer of our group of 405 authors in the Airleaf Victims group. My website is at www.AirleafVictims.com.
I had originally been in touch with Steve DeBrota, but my phone calls for the past two weeks are going unreturned. Perhaps he is no longer on the case.
Please let me know if your office is assisting our victims who have been taken in excess of one million dollars by the fraudulent practices of Carl Lau and Airleaf Publishing. You can check with the FBI and Postal authorities through Captain Jeff Buskirk in Martinsville, Indiana, who has put our case together.
We are very distraught at the responses of the Indiana government agencies including the Attorney General's office, the Governor's office, and the two State Senator offices. We are frustrated and would like to know how you can help us.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely, Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Organizer, Airleaf Victims
Here was his response on Tuesday, February 19, 2008:
Dear Ms. Kaye:
This matter has not yet been referred to our office by any law enforcement agency. We have seen no reports nor results of any interviews. We are not an investigative unit but are dependent upon work-ups by groups like the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service, both whom you have involved in this.
The Assistant United States Attorney you contacted, Steve DeBrota, was the duty attorney for the office on the day you called. He is not assigned this case, because, as I explained above, no investigative agency has referred it to us. Your telephone calls have been unreturned for the past few weeks, because Mr. DeBrota has been committed to a multi-victim, child exploitation case in the northern part of our district. That case was referred to us and prosecution has commenced.
I am sure the Governor, the Indiana Attorney General, and the offices of Senators Bayh and Lugar are also “distraught.” None of these entities have any criminal jurisdiction in Indiana. The only entities that do—and have relevance here—is the Morgan County, Indiana, Prosecuting Attorney and our office. What can these offices you contacted do for you?
I hope that this group has retained counsel to sue the responsible parties and attempt to seize any relevant assets prior to adjudication on the merits. The burden of proof is lower than in a criminal prosecution and speed of initiation of suit can be faster. Furthermore, restitution is more limited under the criminal law. A successful criminal prosecution will not result in restitution for lost profits.
Finally, your ability to marshal an e-mail campaign that fills our webpage mailbox with more than 120 e-mails may be impressive but unproductive. One referred to me as Attorney General and castigated me for failing to return your calls. I have never spoken to you and I am not the Attorney General. Another told me his books were printed and shipped, but 100 of them were defective. (This is more evidence of breach of contract than criminal fraud) Consolidated communication will save time. Feel free to distribute this e-mail to your group.
We will work through this as we are provided with sufficient information.
Sincerely,
Timothy M. Morrison, Acting U.S. Attorney
I felt somewhat "stung" by this response. I thought it was petty of Mr. Morrison to bring up two insignificant points of being referred to as the AG and the defective books. Instead, I would have liked for him to note that he was very saddened to hear about the fraudulence that our group had been part of and that he would do whatever he could to check this for us. Instead, he was asking me what the offices we contacted could do for us.
He acknowledged that my phone calls had not been returned because the attorney on duty was assigned to a more pressing case. I can understand that—but all it takes is communication to relay that. A call back from his department explaining this would have been sufficient and avoided the mass emails. I am not a party of one calling on my own behalf—I am representing a group of over 400 people who are looking for answers.
Mr. Morrison made the comment that restitution is more limited under criminal law, suggesting we find an attorney to sue for us. This was my response that I sent to him later that day:
Dear Mr. Morrison,
Thank you for your quick response to the Airleaf Victims. Quite frankly, we are very disgusted and frustrated at this point. Other than the police captain in Martinsville, Captain Jeff Buskirk, we have heard virtually no news about our case for over six months. We are not versed in the legal means of getting action in Indiana. We do know how virtually every government official has told us that this is not his responsibility and bumped us over to the next official.
Please understand that we are not in a position to hire an attorney. Many of our members are elderly and disabled, and they have invested every last penny they have into this predatory publisher who has now closed down. An attorney would cost us a lot of money, and most of us are tapped out from investing our money in Airleaf. With a company that has closed, it's hard to find an attorney who wants to take the case because there will be limited assets to retrieve. We understand that the owner, Mr. Carl Lau, is claiming bankruptcy.
At this point, we know that there are limited funds that may be returned. Regardless, we would like to see criminal charges pressed against Carl Lau and other employees who knowingly defrauded our authors. We need to send a message that is loud and clear that robbing people of their hopes, dreams, and money is not an allowable practice in Indiana where so many print-on-demand companies are now set up or setting up.
It was not my intention to clog your email system, but rather to make a mass plea to you to help us. We are feeling very lost in this matter. It seems to me that if one person was robbed in your state, action would be taken. We have over 400 people at this point who are part of our group who have been robbed, and yet all we hear is that it's no one's real responsibility and we should get an attorney.
Maybe you can still help us by contacting the FBI and Postal Authorities to make sure that this case is being investigated and that the criminal (s) will not be allowed to go unpunished. I will not have people write to you anymore. If I need information, I will come to you directly and relay your messages. If there is any information that I can provide for you that will help this case move along, please let me know.
Thank you for listening, and I appreciate whatever you can do for us.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
www.AirleafVictims.com
As a P.S., I received confirmation from 23 more of you who sent out the note to Mr. Morrison during the week, so nearly 150 of us have written to that office. There is no need to send out an email at this point if you haven't done so. Mr. Morrison certainly knows about the Airleaf Victims. One thing that this experience is teaching me at this stage of my life is how wrong my perceptions of government were. Morrison stated: "I am sure the Governor, the Indiana Attorney General, and the offices of Senators Bayh and Lugar are also “distraught.” None of these entities have any criminal jurisdiction in Indiana." This was amazing to me. I never realized that these political offices have no criminal jurisdiction. Did you?
On a personal note, I do know that things are moving, even if the wheels are spinning slowly for our satisfaction. Many of you are left in limbo at the moment because you are anxious to receive your files and books. I am hoping that Captain Buskirk will have some news for us this week.
Some of us received forms this week from the Attorney General's office once again called Consumer Complaint Forms. I called Tom Irons from the AG's office who is the most responsive of all government officials I have dealt with. He is checking to see why this second form was sent to us since we filled out the original form online and then received a hard copy form to fill out after that. He will get back to me this week, so you can wait until you hear from me before you fill this one out. Please be assured that since Tom took over our case a few weeks ago that he is working on getting our case together. Hopefully, he will be able to pursue a civil case on our behalf.
One of our authors wrote to me about a publishing company, Capstone Fiction, for Christian FICTION. This is in NO WAY to be confused with Capstone Productions, the Hollywood movie company that Carl Lau claimed he was working with. A number of our victims fit into this category. I checked out the company through the Internet and our wonderful resource Victoria Strauss to see if this would be a viable avenue for some of our authors. When I felt comfortable with the results, I wrote to one of the owners, Ramona Tucker, about our situation and asked if our Christian fiction authors could apply to be published with them. Here are some excerpts from Ramona's response:
Hi Bonnie,
I am SO saddened to hear about the experience of your group members with AIrleaf! I hate hearing such stories (and unfortunately, in 25 years of publishing, I’ve heard quite a few of them.) I had never heard of Airleaf, but was able to read through your website information about it just now), but it sounds to me like it was a “self-publisher” (in other words, each of your writers PAID that company to publish their book. There wasn’t really any personal investment from the publisher that they loved/believed in that book. Such things happening—and authors getting taken for a ride because they are so desperate to be published that they’re willing to pay anything—are one of the many reasons we launched Capstone! To give new authors an opportunity to publish and to slowly start growing their reader base…since every good thing takes its time! Capstone is not about “competing” to get the top book/top author; it’s about our passion to get wonderful books that we believe could make it nationally--books with fresh plots, quirky characters into the hands of readers of a broad spectrum of readers. And without the “fear” that if they don’t sell enough the first year that the book will get “axed” by the publisher, as is happening more and more frequently these days.)
Capstone is a one-year-old company (we celebrated our first anniversary on Dec. 31, 2007) but founded by myself and Jeff Nesbit, both veterans of the publishing industry. You can find out a lot about us by googling our names, Capstone Fiction, and going to our website at www.Capstonefiction.com.
Who is Capstone? We are a traditional publisher (in other words, just like Tyndale, Zondervan, Nelson, etc.); when we sign an author’s work, that means we believe in the work and feel strongly that it needs to have a chance in the marketplace (whether it sells 500 copies, 5,000 copies, or 50,000 copies over its lifetime!). Our primary mission is to create opportunities for new, talented Christian writers, while also promoting leading-edge fiction by established Christian authors. Today’s market is very tough for new writers. Most publishing houses, due to tightening the belts with the economy, sign/promote 2-3 top authors, but there’s little room for anyone new (that doesn’t already have a huge platform) to make an inroad. A walk through any Christian bookstore will show you that many of the titles are by the same authors. Also, Christian/inspirational publishers publish very little in the realms of sci-fi, fantasy, juvenile/children’s literature. And it is rare for a publisher to produce a 4-color children’s book since Berryman Graphics (the one huge color press) shut their doors a couple years ago (yet Capstone has produced 2 color titles in the first year of our publication. In a process that normally takes 3 years (6-9 months to read/acquire a manuscript, 3 months for a contract, 6-9 months in editorial/design, and 6-9 months in production, Capstone had already produced 47 titles (going through the same process of acquiring, contracting, editing, designing, etc., that all traditional publishers use) by the end of our first year, on Dec. 31, 2007!
Our titles represent numerous genres of inspirational fiction: historical, fantasy, sci-fi, romance, literary, mystery, biblical, detective, humor, legal/political thrillers, biblical, and suspense. And in a day when, in light of economic realities, publishers have chosen to publish very few children’s and young adult titles, we have published 10 titles spanning those categories.
So, Bonnie, that’s a little bit about us. (And probably more than you wanted!) Take a look at our site, too. We’re straightforward kind of folks. We believe in honesty, integrity, have a passion for broadening the scope of inspirational publishing and giving new authors of brilliantly crafted novels (fiction, only—for all ages). We would welcome submission from any writers, once you and they have checked us out. (And no, we are not an “e” publisher, to combat that notion: when you order a Capstone title from amazon.com for example, you get it in exactly the same timeframe you’d get any other book you order, and in hard copy!) We also work with one of the most creative and brilliant head designers in the publishing business, who has over 22 years in the field, as well (and you can see the result in the wonderful Capstone titles pictured on our site). You’ll find submission guidelines, etc., online, as well. The only thing that has really changed in the interim (which we haven’t been able to update in the flurry), is that it takes us about 4-6 weeks to respond to queries, since we were recently deluged with 800 manuscripts. Word is getting around, and it’s very exciting to see the wonderful manuscripts coming our way!
Thanks for writing, Bonnie! I hope this information is helpful to you and the rest of your group.
If you have a Christian fiction book and would like to submit your query, you can visit their site at www.CapstoneFiction.com. It is a very informative and easy to use site.
To date, I have received 163 surveys back from you. Thank you so much for taking the time to fill these out. I will be compiling the data during the first week of March and getting back to you with the results. If you haven't sent yours in, there is still time. You can do it by email or snail mail. If you need help, just let me know.
The most important thing to remember is that we have to remain vigilant and not get discouraged by the lack of visible progress. Carl Lau is counting on time being on his side and our frustration making us give up. Remember—good things come to those who wait, and they will certainly come to us.
With love and hope,
Bonnie
Saturday, February 9, 2008
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 9, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
First, welcome to our new members. We have passed the 400-member mark this week with 401 members in our group.
This week, I have no new news to report concerning our case. I anticipate that some action will be taken by later this month. I have calls in to the US Attorney in Indiana, and I hope to hear from him by next week for an update.
This week, I am asking you to help me get our case organized because I believe that we will see some results in the near future from all of our efforts. I have attached a profile sheet for each of you to fill out so I can compile the data for all of us, the government agencies who will be bringing charges against Carl Lau, and the media. All information will be kept confidential from the public unless I personally ask you individually to allow me to share it with an agency or news source. I would never compromise anyone's integrity by giving out information without your permission.
I am trying to pinpoint when the fraudulence started to escalate at Airleaf and who the employees were who knowingly participated in it. I am also trying to differentiate between the publishing services versus the promotional services. Some of you paid for books to be published by Airleaf, some of you paid for your own books to be promoted by Airleaf, and some people paid for publishing and promotion by Airleaf. From our 400 members, I want to get a significant sampling to make comparisons.
For example, I went to Airleaf to publish my book Straight Wives: Shattered Lives. I paid $1,895.00 for publishing, 50 copies, and placement in 15 book stores. That price also included a return policy so I could have books signings. My book was published quickly, and I did receive the 50 copies. However, my book copies did not show up to my first book signing (problems with the printer was the excuse), it never appeared in 15 bookstores (I checked), and when I requested a book signing to be set up in Southern California last summer, I was told that there were no bookstores interested in this in Southern California. Since my book was publicized on national news stories, I found this amazing. I also was promised quarterly royalties, but we all are familiar with that story.
In my early days with Airleaf while I was still in the "honeymoon phase," I bought a promotional package for a book I published through iUniverse called ManReaders: A Woman's Guide to Dysfunctional Men. I paid $350.00 to have the press release for the book sent to "important decision makers" in the television market. Of course, there were no responses, but as my Airleaf consultant told me, "Lots of interest." So in my case, I paid for publishing and promotion of an Airleaf book, and promotion of my own book published elsewhere. On the survey form, please check all of the services that you paid for.
Some of you may need reminders to jog your memories, so I have gone back to some of my old emails and looked at some of the promotions that were sent to me. These include:
You have until November 30, 2006 to save on selected bookselling
services!
Reach 2000 bookstore owners for just $239.40! You save $160!
Reach 1000 Filmmakers for just 210! You save $140!
Reach 400 Traditional Publishers for just $270! You save $180!
Sell your book on 10 websites for $299.40! You save $200!
Reach 10,000 bookstore owners with our Maximum Impact Service which
includes direct telephone calls to bookstores for just $990. You save
$660!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
NEW BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB
While we have sold thousands of books to hundreds of book stores, we have
never focused on selling books directly to individual readers--Until now!
With Airleaf's new Book of the Month Club we will be tapping into this
multi-billion dollar consumer market for the first time.
Book clubs like Oprah Winfrey's and The Today Show's generate millions of
dollars in book sales every month. We hope our book club will do the same.
We have selected a few of our best titles for club members, but we believe
the Book of the Month Club will benefit ALL Airleaf authors.
Please take a look!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
And my personal favorite lure to author fame from 3/28/07
Is your book the next to appear on the big screen?
Check out www.airleaf.com to see the trailer for our first film, Jessie’s Girl.
We are making another trip to Hollywood in April to present all new books to all new Producers and Directors! We will present your book in face to face meetings for just $650.
So, hopefully some of these campaigns will help you remember which ones you bought. And for sure—they all sounded so, so good—and legitimate!
I would like to share two links with you today. One is from our friend Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, a website that gives excellent advice to writers and warms them about possible scams. I told Victoria that I am working on some helpful links to help our writers with their book promotions in a meaningful way. I believe that most POD companies that offer package deals are misleading and/or ineffective. All of us want our books to sell, but there are many things that we can do on our own for little or no money rather than pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to promoters.
Victoria welcomed me to share her link about services for writers, and I know you'll find some excellent ideas there.
Link to Writer Beware: Writers' Services
The second link I would like to share with you is the link to help find a literary agent. I have found this link to be extremely helpful when trying to find an agent. It was sent to me by an agent friend, and I have been using it to test it out. There is no cost for using this link, Agent Query. Some of you have written to me that you would like to go through a "traditional" publishing route, so here is the way to start.
Link to Agent Query:
AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
Some words of advice when seeking a literary agent: Expect rejection and don't personalize it. I have gone through the traditional route twice. I have found two excellent agents, one who was able to sell my first book, and a second one who believed in my book but was unable to sell it. I sent out 60 targeted inquiry letters both times and only received three people who were interested the first time and two people interested the second time. And although I was able to sell my first book, there was a long turn-around time between throughout this journey. So if you are expecting a quick fix—forget it. Make sure that if you choose this route that you have a strong query letter done in the proper format. There are lots of websites that give great advice in how to prepare one, and I am always happy to look it over for you and give suggestions. Also keep in mind if you are lucky enough to find an agent, there is usually a back up time in publishing once they find a publisher of between 12 and 18 months.
Last week, I sent you to our Airleaf Victims blog site. If you looked there, you saw my books were listed on the right hand side and available on Amazon. If you are selling your books on Amazon, my blog-keeper will be glad to have your book or books listed on our Airleaf Victims site. Just drop me a note, and I'll tell you what I need.
Here is a link to the Airleaf Victims blog site so you can see my books listed:
Airleaf Victims
In the upcoming weeks, I will share some excellent ideas and links with you to help you with your book promotion. These links and ideas are mostly free ideas that you can do yourself.
Please remember to fill out your survey and get it back to me with any documentation you have. If you want to send it to me by mail, my home address is listed on the bottom of the form. In three weeks, I will take a few days off from my job so I can compile all of the information that you are sending in and give you the results. If you do not have a printer and you would like me to send you the form as an email, just let me know.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye :)
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
First, welcome to our new members. We have passed the 400-member mark this week with 401 members in our group.
This week, I have no new news to report concerning our case. I anticipate that some action will be taken by later this month. I have calls in to the US Attorney in Indiana, and I hope to hear from him by next week for an update.
This week, I am asking you to help me get our case organized because I believe that we will see some results in the near future from all of our efforts. I have attached a profile sheet for each of you to fill out so I can compile the data for all of us, the government agencies who will be bringing charges against Carl Lau, and the media. All information will be kept confidential from the public unless I personally ask you individually to allow me to share it with an agency or news source. I would never compromise anyone's integrity by giving out information without your permission.
I am trying to pinpoint when the fraudulence started to escalate at Airleaf and who the employees were who knowingly participated in it. I am also trying to differentiate between the publishing services versus the promotional services. Some of you paid for books to be published by Airleaf, some of you paid for your own books to be promoted by Airleaf, and some people paid for publishing and promotion by Airleaf. From our 400 members, I want to get a significant sampling to make comparisons.
For example, I went to Airleaf to publish my book Straight Wives: Shattered Lives. I paid $1,895.00 for publishing, 50 copies, and placement in 15 book stores. That price also included a return policy so I could have books signings. My book was published quickly, and I did receive the 50 copies. However, my book copies did not show up to my first book signing (problems with the printer was the excuse), it never appeared in 15 bookstores (I checked), and when I requested a book signing to be set up in Southern California last summer, I was told that there were no bookstores interested in this in Southern California. Since my book was publicized on national news stories, I found this amazing. I also was promised quarterly royalties, but we all are familiar with that story.
In my early days with Airleaf while I was still in the "honeymoon phase," I bought a promotional package for a book I published through iUniverse called ManReaders: A Woman's Guide to Dysfunctional Men. I paid $350.00 to have the press release for the book sent to "important decision makers" in the television market. Of course, there were no responses, but as my Airleaf consultant told me, "Lots of interest." So in my case, I paid for publishing and promotion of an Airleaf book, and promotion of my own book published elsewhere. On the survey form, please check all of the services that you paid for.
Some of you may need reminders to jog your memories, so I have gone back to some of my old emails and looked at some of the promotions that were sent to me. These include:
You have until November 30, 2006 to save on selected bookselling
services!
Reach 2000 bookstore owners for just $239.40! You save $160!
Reach 1000 Filmmakers for just 210! You save $140!
Reach 400 Traditional Publishers for just $270! You save $180!
Sell your book on 10 websites for $299.40! You save $200!
Reach 10,000 bookstore owners with our Maximum Impact Service which
includes direct telephone calls to bookstores for just $990. You save
$660!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
NEW BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB
While we have sold thousands of books to hundreds of book stores, we have
never focused on selling books directly to individual readers--Until now!
With Airleaf's new Book of the Month Club we will be tapping into this
multi-billion dollar consumer market for the first time.
Book clubs like Oprah Winfrey's and The Today Show's generate millions of
dollars in book sales every month. We hope our book club will do the same.
We have selected a few of our best titles for club members, but we believe
the Book of the Month Club will benefit ALL Airleaf authors.
Please take a look!
SAVE $900 ON DIRECT CALLING TO BOOKSTORES!
While our email, fax and direct mail campaigns have all been successful,
nothing sells books better than a telephone call to the owner of the
bookstore. We want all of our authors' books to sell, so we are making
our Direct Telephone Calling Service affordable for everyone.
Usually, Direct Telephone Calling is only available as part of our
Maximum Impact Bookselling Package which sells for $1650. However, for
the month of June, we are offering our Direct Telephone Calling as a
stand-alone service for just $750! This is our most effective service
at our lowest price ever.
And my personal favorite lure to author fame from 3/28/07
Is your book the next to appear on the big screen?
Check out www.airleaf.com to see the trailer for our first film, Jessie’s Girl.
We are making another trip to Hollywood in April to present all new books to all new Producers and Directors! We will present your book in face to face meetings for just $650.
So, hopefully some of these campaigns will help you remember which ones you bought. And for sure—they all sounded so, so good—and legitimate!
I would like to share two links with you today. One is from our friend Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware, a website that gives excellent advice to writers and warms them about possible scams. I told Victoria that I am working on some helpful links to help our writers with their book promotions in a meaningful way. I believe that most POD companies that offer package deals are misleading and/or ineffective. All of us want our books to sell, but there are many things that we can do on our own for little or no money rather than pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to promoters.
Victoria welcomed me to share her link about services for writers, and I know you'll find some excellent ideas there.
Link to Writer Beware: Writers' Services
The second link I would like to share with you is the link to help find a literary agent. I have found this link to be extremely helpful when trying to find an agent. It was sent to me by an agent friend, and I have been using it to test it out. There is no cost for using this link, Agent Query. Some of you have written to me that you would like to go through a "traditional" publishing route, so here is the way to start.
Link to Agent Query:
AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher
Some words of advice when seeking a literary agent: Expect rejection and don't personalize it. I have gone through the traditional route twice. I have found two excellent agents, one who was able to sell my first book, and a second one who believed in my book but was unable to sell it. I sent out 60 targeted inquiry letters both times and only received three people who were interested the first time and two people interested the second time. And although I was able to sell my first book, there was a long turn-around time between throughout this journey. So if you are expecting a quick fix—forget it. Make sure that if you choose this route that you have a strong query letter done in the proper format. There are lots of websites that give great advice in how to prepare one, and I am always happy to look it over for you and give suggestions. Also keep in mind if you are lucky enough to find an agent, there is usually a back up time in publishing once they find a publisher of between 12 and 18 months.
Last week, I sent you to our Airleaf Victims blog site. If you looked there, you saw my books were listed on the right hand side and available on Amazon. If you are selling your books on Amazon, my blog-keeper will be glad to have your book or books listed on our Airleaf Victims site. Just drop me a note, and I'll tell you what I need.
Here is a link to the Airleaf Victims blog site so you can see my books listed:
Airleaf Victims
In the upcoming weeks, I will share some excellent ideas and links with you to help you with your book promotion. These links and ideas are mostly free ideas that you can do yourself.
Please remember to fill out your survey and get it back to me with any documentation you have. If you want to send it to me by mail, my home address is listed on the bottom of the form. In three weeks, I will take a few days off from my job so I can compile all of the information that you are sending in and give you the results. If you do not have a printer and you would like me to send you the form as an email, just let me know.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye :)
Saturday, February 2, 2008
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE FEBRUARY 2, 2008
February 2, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 391 members in our Airleaf Victims group. Each week, more people are finding us as they try to call Airleaf or check their website only to find they have vanished.
Earlier in the week, I spoke to Detective Buskirk. He is moving along with the case, and as of the time of our conversation, he had 256 official complaints from our group. He is preparing his case to present to the federal agencies which can bring criminal charges against the people from Airleaf who have victimized us. I am hoping that we will see some concrete results this month. He is also trying to arrange times when authors who want to pick up their files and books can do so and hopes that will happen shortly. Hang in, and I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday, I spoke with Tom Irons from the Attorney General’s office. Tom is a very nice man who took over the case from Terry Tolliver after Tolliver left several months ago. Until that point, the incoming complaint files were just being compiled by paralegal Raven Bobbio, but it appears nothing more than that happened in the interim. After having my second in-depth conversation with Tom, I realized that regardless of how strong of a case we currently have (he told me new complaints are still coming in each week from our group), there is nothing very meaningful that his office can do at this time. In as much as the AG’s office can only bring civil charges, and in view of the fact that Airleaf is now shut down thanks to our efforts, his office is somewhat at a loss of taking meaningful action. He went through all of the steps that their office would have to go through to get to get to court with Carl Lau, and it sounds very overwhelming as far as getting us real results.
And so we will have to put our faith in the federal agencies such as the FBI, Postal Inspector, and US Attorney in Indiana for getting meaningful resolve. I did explain to him that I hold the AG’s office responsible for allowing things to get to this point since they were aware of our situation and sat on it for so long. The AG’s office was aware of Airleaf last year when they made settlement with two other authors, issued them a warning as I’ve mentioned in an earlier update, and sat on it when our complaints started coming in to them. Since the AG’s office is responsible for consumer fraud, I contend that it was their responsibility to protect us. If they could have put an injunction against Airleaf until our issues were resolved, many of our victims who were taken after August when our complaints started flowing in could have been saved. In the days ahead, I will be asking for accountability of that agency with other government officials who oversee that office.
I’m sure if Tom were there during our tribulations, he would have been very responsive, but he started in this job too late. However, he is going to pursue whatever action he can for us, and he is working to organize a case from the complaints that have been filed to see if he can put together a civil complaint for restitution for us. I will check back with him next month to see how he is progressing.
I recently asked the group if you have documentation about the “Hollywood Pitches” that Airleaf charge you for to take your books to Hollywood. Seven of you saved the information that was sent to you with the report and mailed me copies to compare. It was no surprise that they were the standard printed letters that I expected to find. I’d like to share this with you.
First—here was the confirmation to authors:
Dear _______________
This agreement is for the “Face to Face Hollywood” program, where your book will be discussed in meetings set with Hollywood producers.
Per our agreement we will create a “Film Treatment” of your book and have at least 5 face to face meetings with different producers, promoting it for feature film, direct to video, or TV.
Also per our agreement you will receive updates after the interviews with the producer’s company name, and dates of the presentations.
Thank you for your business,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf Publishing
Well, it didn’t look like the “5 face to face meetings” ever happened, but here are the results of the “Face to Face Hollywood” program sent out to the authors.
All of the form letters were dated either June 7 or June 8, 2007.
Dear _________
The producers that I met with this time in the representation of your books are as follows:
Al Smith – Lite-stone Entertainment
Brad Hong – Cinemagic Entertainment
Cliff Miracle – Capstone Productions
I met with these people privately so I had plenty of time to thoroughly discuss, the overview of your film idea. I have received commitments for 6 different children’s books for “direct to video” production, as a direct result from those meetings. This is very exciting, and as of yet I have not been told of any rejections, which is also good news!
If you look on our website, you will see over 20 books that we have movie commitments for. When I present to other producers and tell them that we have “X” amount of said commitments, they take us seriously and pay attention to what we have.
I have already seen this and use it to our advantage. For the last 2 years we have worked very hard to get a movie made. We knew that once we did, each one after that would be easier to get done.
We do see that happening and hopefully yours too will soon find itself in that mix. These producers and filmmakers know of your books. If we hear anything, you’ll be the second to know.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to pitch your film idea. I will be going back for follow up in a little over a month. Feel free to let me know if you need anything.
Best regards,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf LLC
(I have reprinted the letters exactly—not cleaning up the poor grammar skills of Carl Lau)
Now, if I were one of the victims who paid for this service, I would have felt very excited—as you all did. There was no way for you to know that this was a fraudulent set-up. This is where Lite Stone Entertainment falls into my conspiracy theory because they put up their website listing 20 Airleaf books in production or pre-production. Those were the 20 of you who believed you really had a chance after getting your books made into a movie. This gave more false hope for those of you who started investing in the Hollywood promotions. You were seeing actual Airleaf authors whose books were in production or pre-production—and you believed with the excellent marketing of Airleaf’s sales team that yours could be the next big hit. You were told that Jessie’s Girl was an Airleaf book being made into a major film—and the trailer for the film was at the top of the Airleaf website to make you believe that this could happen to you. You were duped by the best.
We all know the Lite Stone story. And the Cinemagic Story is well…magic—here today, gone tomorrow. Carl Lau hooked up with Brad Hung from Japan’s Cinemagic at one of these gatherings. The “magic” about Brad Hung is that he disappeared, never to be seen again except on the Airleaf website sitting with a few of our authors. That was the most visible he was in this country.
Then there was Cliff Miracle of Capstone Productions. I’ve tried researching this with no luck at all. I did find a Capstone Productions on the Internet and explained our situation. Their representative was kind enough to write back:
Bonnie,
Good morning. There are a number of Capstone production companies out there, but we’ve never been involved with any movie making. We specialize in TV and radio commercials and corporate videos. Feel free to call or write if you have any further questions.
Jeff Hayes
COO, Capstone Production Group
So if any of you have a clue how to find Cliff Miracle at Capstone, please let me know because I’d like to have a chat with him--if he really does exist. And that would truly be a “miracle.”
Each week, I send a copy of this update to various government officials. It has been brought to my attention that others also check this weekly update in our blog. It is important for us to keep telling the stories to pressure the authorities to take action. When you have a chance, please check out our blog. Here is the link:
BLOG LINK: Airleaf Victims
At the bottom of the blog there is a place for you to post comments. These comments are read by the people following our case—government officials, former Airleaf employees, and of course, Carl Lau. It’s important to start voicing your feelings when you have a chance. If you are willing to share your stories in this update, this is important as well to let others know they are not alone in being taken by Airleaf.
Next week, I’ll be sending you a questionnaire to fill out so I can systematically put all of this together to help the legal authorities in an organized manner. It is important for us to keep up the momentum as we move along. We don’t want the Airleaf fraudulence to be an issue that is overlooked or underrated as far as a priority. We must keep up our pressure on the federal agencies so that we can seek justice for the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims that are out there. And when this does get to trial, I look forward to meeting some of you as we celebrate our success.
Please feel free to write to me with any questions or concerns.
With love and hope,
Bonnie :)
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
As of today, we have 391 members in our Airleaf Victims group. Each week, more people are finding us as they try to call Airleaf or check their website only to find they have vanished.
Earlier in the week, I spoke to Detective Buskirk. He is moving along with the case, and as of the time of our conversation, he had 256 official complaints from our group. He is preparing his case to present to the federal agencies which can bring criminal charges against the people from Airleaf who have victimized us. I am hoping that we will see some concrete results this month. He is also trying to arrange times when authors who want to pick up their files and books can do so and hopes that will happen shortly. Hang in, and I’ll keep you posted.
Yesterday, I spoke with Tom Irons from the Attorney General’s office. Tom is a very nice man who took over the case from Terry Tolliver after Tolliver left several months ago. Until that point, the incoming complaint files were just being compiled by paralegal Raven Bobbio, but it appears nothing more than that happened in the interim. After having my second in-depth conversation with Tom, I realized that regardless of how strong of a case we currently have (he told me new complaints are still coming in each week from our group), there is nothing very meaningful that his office can do at this time. In as much as the AG’s office can only bring civil charges, and in view of the fact that Airleaf is now shut down thanks to our efforts, his office is somewhat at a loss of taking meaningful action. He went through all of the steps that their office would have to go through to get to get to court with Carl Lau, and it sounds very overwhelming as far as getting us real results.
And so we will have to put our faith in the federal agencies such as the FBI, Postal Inspector, and US Attorney in Indiana for getting meaningful resolve. I did explain to him that I hold the AG’s office responsible for allowing things to get to this point since they were aware of our situation and sat on it for so long. The AG’s office was aware of Airleaf last year when they made settlement with two other authors, issued them a warning as I’ve mentioned in an earlier update, and sat on it when our complaints started coming in to them. Since the AG’s office is responsible for consumer fraud, I contend that it was their responsibility to protect us. If they could have put an injunction against Airleaf until our issues were resolved, many of our victims who were taken after August when our complaints started flowing in could have been saved. In the days ahead, I will be asking for accountability of that agency with other government officials who oversee that office.
I’m sure if Tom were there during our tribulations, he would have been very responsive, but he started in this job too late. However, he is going to pursue whatever action he can for us, and he is working to organize a case from the complaints that have been filed to see if he can put together a civil complaint for restitution for us. I will check back with him next month to see how he is progressing.
I recently asked the group if you have documentation about the “Hollywood Pitches” that Airleaf charge you for to take your books to Hollywood. Seven of you saved the information that was sent to you with the report and mailed me copies to compare. It was no surprise that they were the standard printed letters that I expected to find. I’d like to share this with you.
First—here was the confirmation to authors:
Dear _______________
This agreement is for the “Face to Face Hollywood” program, where your book will be discussed in meetings set with Hollywood producers.
Per our agreement we will create a “Film Treatment” of your book and have at least 5 face to face meetings with different producers, promoting it for feature film, direct to video, or TV.
Also per our agreement you will receive updates after the interviews with the producer’s company name, and dates of the presentations.
Thank you for your business,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf Publishing
Well, it didn’t look like the “5 face to face meetings” ever happened, but here are the results of the “Face to Face Hollywood” program sent out to the authors.
All of the form letters were dated either June 7 or June 8, 2007.
Dear _________
The producers that I met with this time in the representation of your books are as follows:
Al Smith – Lite-stone Entertainment
Brad Hong – Cinemagic Entertainment
Cliff Miracle – Capstone Productions
I met with these people privately so I had plenty of time to thoroughly discuss, the overview of your film idea. I have received commitments for 6 different children’s books for “direct to video” production, as a direct result from those meetings. This is very exciting, and as of yet I have not been told of any rejections, which is also good news!
If you look on our website, you will see over 20 books that we have movie commitments for. When I present to other producers and tell them that we have “X” amount of said commitments, they take us seriously and pay attention to what we have.
I have already seen this and use it to our advantage. For the last 2 years we have worked very hard to get a movie made. We knew that once we did, each one after that would be easier to get done.
We do see that happening and hopefully yours too will soon find itself in that mix. These producers and filmmakers know of your books. If we hear anything, you’ll be the second to know.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to pitch your film idea. I will be going back for follow up in a little over a month. Feel free to let me know if you need anything.
Best regards,
Carl Lau, President, Airleaf LLC
(I have reprinted the letters exactly—not cleaning up the poor grammar skills of Carl Lau)
Now, if I were one of the victims who paid for this service, I would have felt very excited—as you all did. There was no way for you to know that this was a fraudulent set-up. This is where Lite Stone Entertainment falls into my conspiracy theory because they put up their website listing 20 Airleaf books in production or pre-production. Those were the 20 of you who believed you really had a chance after getting your books made into a movie. This gave more false hope for those of you who started investing in the Hollywood promotions. You were seeing actual Airleaf authors whose books were in production or pre-production—and you believed with the excellent marketing of Airleaf’s sales team that yours could be the next big hit. You were told that Jessie’s Girl was an Airleaf book being made into a major film—and the trailer for the film was at the top of the Airleaf website to make you believe that this could happen to you. You were duped by the best.
We all know the Lite Stone story. And the Cinemagic Story is well…magic—here today, gone tomorrow. Carl Lau hooked up with Brad Hung from Japan’s Cinemagic at one of these gatherings. The “magic” about Brad Hung is that he disappeared, never to be seen again except on the Airleaf website sitting with a few of our authors. That was the most visible he was in this country.
Then there was Cliff Miracle of Capstone Productions. I’ve tried researching this with no luck at all. I did find a Capstone Productions on the Internet and explained our situation. Their representative was kind enough to write back:
Bonnie,
Good morning. There are a number of Capstone production companies out there, but we’ve never been involved with any movie making. We specialize in TV and radio commercials and corporate videos. Feel free to call or write if you have any further questions.
Jeff Hayes
COO, Capstone Production Group
So if any of you have a clue how to find Cliff Miracle at Capstone, please let me know because I’d like to have a chat with him--if he really does exist. And that would truly be a “miracle.”
Each week, I send a copy of this update to various government officials. It has been brought to my attention that others also check this weekly update in our blog. It is important for us to keep telling the stories to pressure the authorities to take action. When you have a chance, please check out our blog. Here is the link:
BLOG LINK: Airleaf Victims
At the bottom of the blog there is a place for you to post comments. These comments are read by the people following our case—government officials, former Airleaf employees, and of course, Carl Lau. It’s important to start voicing your feelings when you have a chance. If you are willing to share your stories in this update, this is important as well to let others know they are not alone in being taken by Airleaf.
Next week, I’ll be sending you a questionnaire to fill out so I can systematically put all of this together to help the legal authorities in an organized manner. It is important for us to keep up the momentum as we move along. We don’t want the Airleaf fraudulence to be an issue that is overlooked or underrated as far as a priority. We must keep up our pressure on the federal agencies so that we can seek justice for the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims that are out there. And when this does get to trial, I look forward to meeting some of you as we celebrate our success.
Please feel free to write to me with any questions or concerns.
With love and hope,
Bonnie :)
Saturday, December 29, 2007
294 Members in our Group!!!
December 29, 2007
Dear Airleaf Victims and Supporters,
Welcome to our new members. As of today, we have 294 members in our group, and the numbers will continue to grow as the word about Airleaf’s closing continues to get out.
In as much as this was a holiday week, there is not too much official government news. I did contact the other Senator in Indiana, Evan Bayh, to discuss the problem. I was told there was nothing his office could do except to question the Attorney General, so I said that’s fine—do that. Of course, they are first sending me a form to fill out with the information before they can question him.
Many of you have written to me to tell me that you’ve notified Detective Buskirk about what you feel is owed to you. I neglected to put his email address in the last update as some of you reminded me! If you haven’t taken that step yet, you can write to him at:
jbuskirk@rnetinc.net
Three of you had problems getting the email through. If this is the case, forward it to me at Bonkaye@aol.com and I will try to send it to him.
One of our authors, Bob, sent me a very good point to share with you when seeking restitution. He stated that those of us who published our books with Airleaf should ask for our money back that we spent publishing the book(s) because now we will have to republish with another publisher. I agreed that asking back for this money is an excellent point that I hadn’t thought of. So if you sent your letter to Detective Buskirk, you may want to send him a follow-up stating that you would like the cost of printing your book to be returned to you since you need to have the book reprinted.
One of our great supporters, author Richard Fracasso, has given me some excellent suggestions including refocusing me to look for a class-action attorney which I put on the back burner due to the lack of queries I sent out at the beginning of the campaign. Following Richard’s advice, I did speak to a very reputable one who is interested in our case this week. We will speak in greater detail next week after he returns from vacation. Richard also thought it would be good if I could have a database with where you live in order to start pressuring other government officials where there may be a cluster of authors. So if you would be kind enough to send me an email with your name, city, and state, I would appreciate it. Please send it to Bonkaye@aol.com.
I would like to tell you Richard’s story which is now on our Airleaf Victim’s website. Richard authored the book Strawberries With Love, a beautiful tribute to his late wife, Ann. The book is filled with poems and antidotes about their life together before she died in 1976. In Richard’s own words, “I received a letter of solicitation from Airleaf Publishing regarding my book Strawberries with Love that was published by another publishing company in 2004. This book was a tribute to my late wife, who was the love of my life. In 2006, I paid Airleaf $4,000.00 for their promotion services. I also sent them 270 books to sell from my original publisher, Vantage Press, and was told that I would receive $3.00 - $4.00 for a book. To date, I have never received any money from them.
I am a 76-year old disabled and completely blind man with no children or family. I lost my wife in 1978 so I have virtually no help to fight this. I have a genetic disorder chorideremia that leads to blindness. Please do whatever you can to help me."
Before I called Richard in November (I got his name from a tip from a former Airleaf employee who felt very bad for him for being defrauded), he was not aware that our campaign had been started. When I called and introduced myself and the word “Airleaf Victims” came out of my mouth, he was ready to hang up the phone, thinking it was another “Airleaf” call. When I explained what we are doing, he was so excited to be part of our group. Richard is totally blind and has no family. He is very vulnerable as far as getting information. You can only imagine how distressed he felt after being taken for $4,000.00 to invest in a dream so his dead wife’s memory could stay alive.
Now I call Richard weekly when the update comes out to read it to him so he can feel his is on a winning team instead of just being with a losing publisher. He is such a wonderful man, and I’m so glad to have him as my new friend.
Interesting side bar—some of you, including Richard, were told that you would have your radio interview done through the Airleaf-famous Ian C. Moore in the San Francisco Bay area. And, his show, Culture Shock, was the last standing link that Airleaf had before the website went down two weeks ago. I had appealed to Mr. Moore to take his link off the website as other sponsors had done to show their support back in October, but received no response. So now after investigating his website a little more closely, I realize why—he was an Airleaf published author. He obviously worked hand-in-hand with Carl Lau on these radio promotions with no doubt, something in it for both of them. I must say that after listening to Richard Fracasso’s interview, that I am the one in “culture shock” that this man has a show at all and “interviews people.” You can listen to this interview at the link below, and click in Richard Fracasso. It would have been nice at the start of the interview if he stated Richard’s name correctly. And if you want to have a contest with me, count how many times Moore says, “hum” throughout the interview. I’ll be listening to other Airleaf victims interviews in the next few days and give you an update.
Link to Culture Shock: CultureShockNews
One of our Airleaf Victims, Jack Pransky, took a trip to Airleaf last week. He asked me to share his account of the experience:
I drove to Martinsville and arranged to meet Captain Jeff Buskirk at the door of Airleaf. At the time we had no idea whether the doors would be open or locked, or if anyone would be there. He arrived a few minutes before I did and told me that Carl Lau was there and had just run out to do an errand (I think maybe to pick up another author) and would be back in a few minutes. I am grateful for Captain Buskirk being there with me; it helped tremendously.
When Carl Lau arrived back he had another author with him. No other staff was at the office. Before I could say anything, Lau immediately apologized to me and said he would try to get me everything I needed. Apparently Capt. Buskirk had already told him I wanted all my book production materials. Carl brought me back into the production room and asked me to bear with him because he didn't really know anything about the production end of the business or where anything was. He went through the file cabinets trying to find the files of my two books and couldn't. He called a few staff people who might still be around or working for him part time, but no one was in except for a woman named Dawn (Rogers Duncan) who was driving down from Indianapolis. Captain Buskirk finally found one of my files. I told Carl that I also wanted whatever computer files were used for the production of my books and especially the printer-ready copy that was sent to the printer. He searched in the computers, said he didn't know what he was doing, but eventually found them. Then he tried to copy them onto a disk for me but couldn't. Dawn then arrived and did it for me. So I got from them the main things I wanted most: the computer files, and one of my two hard files. They said would continue to look for my other hard file, which had apparently been archived, because I had put that one in a long time ago when they were still Bookman.
The other issue was money. 1) I had paid them for a book that was never delivered; 2) I had never been paid for book orders that had been made through them for my first book, Somebody Should Have Told Us! (ironic title, no?). Carl told me what his financial situation was. When all is said and done he will owe something like a quarter million, and he doesn't have it. My conclusion is I'm not sure we'll be getting any money back, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
In the midst of all the searching for my stuff I had the opportunity to talk what him about the whole situation and what he thinks happened and his deep regrets, and all that. He sounded sincere, but the facts speak otherwise. At the very least, what should have been done immediately, at the first sign that things were amiss, is he should have sent a letter out to all his authors telling us what was going on and what we could expect, and if he wasn't sure at that point then that's what he should have told us, and then he should have kept us informed at every step along the way.
I did not approach him with anger, even though I certainly have been very angry at many points along the way, especially when I could not get one word either by phone or over e-mail from anyone in that office for months (and I could easily go there again when I think now of potential lost resources that I can't afford and all the hassle I have to go through all over again to get my book in print). Instead, I was just firm in what I wanted, but in a nice way. Regardless of what I felt for him personally, there is no excuse for what happened to all of us, and we deserve all our stuff back and compensation. That's my cut on it anyway.
Oh, one last point. One thing I learned was it's not like we can just take our pdf files of our books (if they're completed) to another printer (which is what I was hoping). We've got to get rid of the "Airleaf" insignia/logo and, more important, we've got to get our ISBN numbers changed (unfortunately!!!!!). This is why we also need our Microsoft Word files from which the pdf-printer-ready files were made. All this, of course, is a real pain in the ass.
Bonnie, thank you for all you have done for us!
Sincerely, Jack Pransky
I spoke at length with Jack about his visit when he returned. He is such a kind, warm, and nice man, like most of our Airleaf Victims. That’s why we are victims. Most of us are honest, caring people who only wanted to leave something behind for our future generations. We kept hoping against hope that the lies Airleaf fed us would become truths because we found it inconceivable that we would be part of a publishing scam.
I have no sympathy for Carl Lau because he still takes no responsibility for his thievery. In fact, he recently wrote this note to one of our other authors:
If you think of it in a funny way they (referencing in an earlier sentence to Bonnie Kaye and Brien Jones) talk that they want me out of business and then they complain that I’m not doing the services. It takes money to fulfill these services and they have shut off the money supply. The only thing they really want is to get me out of the way, and to do that they have lied and lied and told half truths. Yes I owe money but when I found out that they had convinced my investor not to invest I quit sending sales letters out not knowing for sure how I was going to survive without an influx of capital.
So, for the record, let me review these facts for all of you. I sent the following email to Carl Lau on August 7, 2007:
Hi Carl,
I see that you've ignored the warnings sent to you by my attorney as far as paying me for the books I sold. This has caused me great pain because every time I receive a notice from your company about your travels, I realize you are traveling on my money--and the money of countless others whose lives are being destroyed by Airleaf.
I've asked my lawyer to proceed, but in addition, I feel the need to proceed myself in my own pro-active way. If you won't pay me what your company owes me by August 15th, I will make it my business to do everything possible to make sure that others are not taken in by your unlawful and unethical practices. I have been in touch with some of your authors who have tried legal avenues but are having little success. Obviously, you're not fazed by the law when it's a straggler here or there. But maybe you'll take this more seriously if I begin a class action law suit with all of your dissatisfied customers. I have researched every book that you have published and spent the last four months tracking down many of the authors. I am about to ask them to join me in this action. In addition, I will take out a website warning people about Airleaf, and invest my own money in Google advertising to point potential victims to the site telling how you have stolen my money and the money of others to go on cruises and Hollywood trips. In addition, I will mention this experience in every upcoming interview I have until I have a reporter ready to do an expose of your company. I do have some national publicity coming up in September due to my interview in Cosmopolitan magazine's September issue, so this will give me an excellent opportunity to discuss Airleaf.
I wanted to give you one last opportunity to do the right thing by me before I proceed with my public campaign to get my money.
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Even I had a hard time believing that I was being ignored on such a serious matter. So when the deadline date came and went, I took out the domain name for www.AirleafVictims.com, put up the original website, took out a Google ad alerting people, and started sending letters to you, the victims. I wanted to let you know that I didn’t do this without warning or on a whim. I felt desperate—like all of you—and having a background in organizing groups, decided to take advantage of that fact.
Since starting this campaign, I have been legally threatened and maligned by Carl Lau and some other Airleaf former employees. I was even offered a payoff to stop this campaign, but refused unless we were all compensated.
Carl Lau claims that I “cut off” his money supply to fulfill the services, but we all know that the services were not being fulfilled long before our campaign. Some people paid for publishing services over a year before our campaign and never saw a galley. Other people paid for trips, books to Hollywood, Kirkus reviews, and other newspaper and television promotional campaigns. These NEVER took place. Where was all the money authors paid upfront for those services? Oh—incidentally, Airleaf borrowed $216,000.00 for a business loan in February 2007. If they were financially solvent at that time, why was there the need for a business loan?
I wanted to remind you of this because people with sociopathic behavior like Carl Lau try to get others to feel sorry for them as if they were the victims. No matter how nice he may seem in a conversation, the actions speak for themselves. Instead of taking any responsibility for screwing up, he is still blaming me and others.
In the weeks ahead, we will keep fighting on until we see justice. We are definitely a force to be reckoned with, and we must remain vigilant. Next week I will also contact the postal authorities to file a complaint about inter-state fraudulence due to the notices that many of us received via the United States Mail. I’ll keep you updated.
This is my request for this week. Please send a note to the Oprah Winfrey website.
Here is the link: OPRAH LINK
This link will take you to the page for ideas. Please tell them that you are an Airleaf Victim, and they can view our website at www.AirleafVictims.com. Explain how you have been defrauded by this company, and how the government of Indiana refuses to cooperate in bringing justice. Hopefully, if at least 100 – 150 of you send in this request, one of her producers will notice and call us. I sent mine in today. If you do this, please send me at note at Bonkaye@aol.com so I can track them.
Please know that I am spending several hours each week investigating solutions for our printing and marketing problems. By the end of January, I will present the best information I have found for everyone to fit your own personal needs. At this time, many companies are coming to me trying to get your business, so I am cautiously looking at each one. If you have had publishing experiences either positive or negative, please feel free to send me that information.
Have a peaceful, healthy, and happy New Year. You should all be proud to be part of an important victory this year, and next year hopefully justice will be served.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye
Dear Airleaf Victims and Supporters,
Welcome to our new members. As of today, we have 294 members in our group, and the numbers will continue to grow as the word about Airleaf’s closing continues to get out.
In as much as this was a holiday week, there is not too much official government news. I did contact the other Senator in Indiana, Evan Bayh, to discuss the problem. I was told there was nothing his office could do except to question the Attorney General, so I said that’s fine—do that. Of course, they are first sending me a form to fill out with the information before they can question him.
Many of you have written to me to tell me that you’ve notified Detective Buskirk about what you feel is owed to you. I neglected to put his email address in the last update as some of you reminded me! If you haven’t taken that step yet, you can write to him at:
jbuskirk@rnetinc.net
Three of you had problems getting the email through. If this is the case, forward it to me at Bonkaye@aol.com and I will try to send it to him.
One of our authors, Bob, sent me a very good point to share with you when seeking restitution. He stated that those of us who published our books with Airleaf should ask for our money back that we spent publishing the book(s) because now we will have to republish with another publisher. I agreed that asking back for this money is an excellent point that I hadn’t thought of. So if you sent your letter to Detective Buskirk, you may want to send him a follow-up stating that you would like the cost of printing your book to be returned to you since you need to have the book reprinted.
One of our great supporters, author Richard Fracasso, has given me some excellent suggestions including refocusing me to look for a class-action attorney which I put on the back burner due to the lack of queries I sent out at the beginning of the campaign. Following Richard’s advice, I did speak to a very reputable one who is interested in our case this week. We will speak in greater detail next week after he returns from vacation. Richard also thought it would be good if I could have a database with where you live in order to start pressuring other government officials where there may be a cluster of authors. So if you would be kind enough to send me an email with your name, city, and state, I would appreciate it. Please send it to Bonkaye@aol.com.
I would like to tell you Richard’s story which is now on our Airleaf Victim’s website. Richard authored the book Strawberries With Love, a beautiful tribute to his late wife, Ann. The book is filled with poems and antidotes about their life together before she died in 1976. In Richard’s own words, “I received a letter of solicitation from Airleaf Publishing regarding my book Strawberries with Love that was published by another publishing company in 2004. This book was a tribute to my late wife, who was the love of my life. In 2006, I paid Airleaf $4,000.00 for their promotion services. I also sent them 270 books to sell from my original publisher, Vantage Press, and was told that I would receive $3.00 - $4.00 for a book. To date, I have never received any money from them.
I am a 76-year old disabled and completely blind man with no children or family. I lost my wife in 1978 so I have virtually no help to fight this. I have a genetic disorder chorideremia that leads to blindness. Please do whatever you can to help me."
Before I called Richard in November (I got his name from a tip from a former Airleaf employee who felt very bad for him for being defrauded), he was not aware that our campaign had been started. When I called and introduced myself and the word “Airleaf Victims” came out of my mouth, he was ready to hang up the phone, thinking it was another “Airleaf” call. When I explained what we are doing, he was so excited to be part of our group. Richard is totally blind and has no family. He is very vulnerable as far as getting information. You can only imagine how distressed he felt after being taken for $4,000.00 to invest in a dream so his dead wife’s memory could stay alive.
Now I call Richard weekly when the update comes out to read it to him so he can feel his is on a winning team instead of just being with a losing publisher. He is such a wonderful man, and I’m so glad to have him as my new friend.
Interesting side bar—some of you, including Richard, were told that you would have your radio interview done through the Airleaf-famous Ian C. Moore in the San Francisco Bay area. And, his show, Culture Shock, was the last standing link that Airleaf had before the website went down two weeks ago. I had appealed to Mr. Moore to take his link off the website as other sponsors had done to show their support back in October, but received no response. So now after investigating his website a little more closely, I realize why—he was an Airleaf published author. He obviously worked hand-in-hand with Carl Lau on these radio promotions with no doubt, something in it for both of them. I must say that after listening to Richard Fracasso’s interview, that I am the one in “culture shock” that this man has a show at all and “interviews people.” You can listen to this interview at the link below, and click in Richard Fracasso. It would have been nice at the start of the interview if he stated Richard’s name correctly. And if you want to have a contest with me, count how many times Moore says, “hum” throughout the interview. I’ll be listening to other Airleaf victims interviews in the next few days and give you an update.
Link to Culture Shock: CultureShockNews
One of our Airleaf Victims, Jack Pransky, took a trip to Airleaf last week. He asked me to share his account of the experience:
I drove to Martinsville and arranged to meet Captain Jeff Buskirk at the door of Airleaf. At the time we had no idea whether the doors would be open or locked, or if anyone would be there. He arrived a few minutes before I did and told me that Carl Lau was there and had just run out to do an errand (I think maybe to pick up another author) and would be back in a few minutes. I am grateful for Captain Buskirk being there with me; it helped tremendously.
When Carl Lau arrived back he had another author with him. No other staff was at the office. Before I could say anything, Lau immediately apologized to me and said he would try to get me everything I needed. Apparently Capt. Buskirk had already told him I wanted all my book production materials. Carl brought me back into the production room and asked me to bear with him because he didn't really know anything about the production end of the business or where anything was. He went through the file cabinets trying to find the files of my two books and couldn't. He called a few staff people who might still be around or working for him part time, but no one was in except for a woman named Dawn (Rogers Duncan) who was driving down from Indianapolis. Captain Buskirk finally found one of my files. I told Carl that I also wanted whatever computer files were used for the production of my books and especially the printer-ready copy that was sent to the printer. He searched in the computers, said he didn't know what he was doing, but eventually found them. Then he tried to copy them onto a disk for me but couldn't. Dawn then arrived and did it for me. So I got from them the main things I wanted most: the computer files, and one of my two hard files. They said would continue to look for my other hard file, which had apparently been archived, because I had put that one in a long time ago when they were still Bookman.
The other issue was money. 1) I had paid them for a book that was never delivered; 2) I had never been paid for book orders that had been made through them for my first book, Somebody Should Have Told Us! (ironic title, no?). Carl told me what his financial situation was. When all is said and done he will owe something like a quarter million, and he doesn't have it. My conclusion is I'm not sure we'll be getting any money back, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
In the midst of all the searching for my stuff I had the opportunity to talk what him about the whole situation and what he thinks happened and his deep regrets, and all that. He sounded sincere, but the facts speak otherwise. At the very least, what should have been done immediately, at the first sign that things were amiss, is he should have sent a letter out to all his authors telling us what was going on and what we could expect, and if he wasn't sure at that point then that's what he should have told us, and then he should have kept us informed at every step along the way.
I did not approach him with anger, even though I certainly have been very angry at many points along the way, especially when I could not get one word either by phone or over e-mail from anyone in that office for months (and I could easily go there again when I think now of potential lost resources that I can't afford and all the hassle I have to go through all over again to get my book in print). Instead, I was just firm in what I wanted, but in a nice way. Regardless of what I felt for him personally, there is no excuse for what happened to all of us, and we deserve all our stuff back and compensation. That's my cut on it anyway.
Oh, one last point. One thing I learned was it's not like we can just take our pdf files of our books (if they're completed) to another printer (which is what I was hoping). We've got to get rid of the "Airleaf" insignia/logo and, more important, we've got to get our ISBN numbers changed (unfortunately!!!!!). This is why we also need our Microsoft Word files from which the pdf-printer-ready files were made. All this, of course, is a real pain in the ass.
Bonnie, thank you for all you have done for us!
Sincerely, Jack Pransky
I spoke at length with Jack about his visit when he returned. He is such a kind, warm, and nice man, like most of our Airleaf Victims. That’s why we are victims. Most of us are honest, caring people who only wanted to leave something behind for our future generations. We kept hoping against hope that the lies Airleaf fed us would become truths because we found it inconceivable that we would be part of a publishing scam.
I have no sympathy for Carl Lau because he still takes no responsibility for his thievery. In fact, he recently wrote this note to one of our other authors:
If you think of it in a funny way they (referencing in an earlier sentence to Bonnie Kaye and Brien Jones) talk that they want me out of business and then they complain that I’m not doing the services. It takes money to fulfill these services and they have shut off the money supply. The only thing they really want is to get me out of the way, and to do that they have lied and lied and told half truths. Yes I owe money but when I found out that they had convinced my investor not to invest I quit sending sales letters out not knowing for sure how I was going to survive without an influx of capital.
So, for the record, let me review these facts for all of you. I sent the following email to Carl Lau on August 7, 2007:
Hi Carl,
I see that you've ignored the warnings sent to you by my attorney as far as paying me for the books I sold. This has caused me great pain because every time I receive a notice from your company about your travels, I realize you are traveling on my money--and the money of countless others whose lives are being destroyed by Airleaf.
I've asked my lawyer to proceed, but in addition, I feel the need to proceed myself in my own pro-active way. If you won't pay me what your company owes me by August 15th, I will make it my business to do everything possible to make sure that others are not taken in by your unlawful and unethical practices. I have been in touch with some of your authors who have tried legal avenues but are having little success. Obviously, you're not fazed by the law when it's a straggler here or there. But maybe you'll take this more seriously if I begin a class action law suit with all of your dissatisfied customers. I have researched every book that you have published and spent the last four months tracking down many of the authors. I am about to ask them to join me in this action. In addition, I will take out a website warning people about Airleaf, and invest my own money in Google advertising to point potential victims to the site telling how you have stolen my money and the money of others to go on cruises and Hollywood trips. In addition, I will mention this experience in every upcoming interview I have until I have a reporter ready to do an expose of your company. I do have some national publicity coming up in September due to my interview in Cosmopolitan magazine's September issue, so this will give me an excellent opportunity to discuss Airleaf.
I wanted to give you one last opportunity to do the right thing by me before I proceed with my public campaign to get my money.
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Even I had a hard time believing that I was being ignored on such a serious matter. So when the deadline date came and went, I took out the domain name for www.AirleafVictims.com, put up the original website, took out a Google ad alerting people, and started sending letters to you, the victims. I wanted to let you know that I didn’t do this without warning or on a whim. I felt desperate—like all of you—and having a background in organizing groups, decided to take advantage of that fact.
Since starting this campaign, I have been legally threatened and maligned by Carl Lau and some other Airleaf former employees. I was even offered a payoff to stop this campaign, but refused unless we were all compensated.
Carl Lau claims that I “cut off” his money supply to fulfill the services, but we all know that the services were not being fulfilled long before our campaign. Some people paid for publishing services over a year before our campaign and never saw a galley. Other people paid for trips, books to Hollywood, Kirkus reviews, and other newspaper and television promotional campaigns. These NEVER took place. Where was all the money authors paid upfront for those services? Oh—incidentally, Airleaf borrowed $216,000.00 for a business loan in February 2007. If they were financially solvent at that time, why was there the need for a business loan?
I wanted to remind you of this because people with sociopathic behavior like Carl Lau try to get others to feel sorry for them as if they were the victims. No matter how nice he may seem in a conversation, the actions speak for themselves. Instead of taking any responsibility for screwing up, he is still blaming me and others.
In the weeks ahead, we will keep fighting on until we see justice. We are definitely a force to be reckoned with, and we must remain vigilant. Next week I will also contact the postal authorities to file a complaint about inter-state fraudulence due to the notices that many of us received via the United States Mail. I’ll keep you updated.
This is my request for this week. Please send a note to the Oprah Winfrey website.
Here is the link: OPRAH LINK
This link will take you to the page for ideas. Please tell them that you are an Airleaf Victim, and they can view our website at www.AirleafVictims.com. Explain how you have been defrauded by this company, and how the government of Indiana refuses to cooperate in bringing justice. Hopefully, if at least 100 – 150 of you send in this request, one of her producers will notice and call us. I sent mine in today. If you do this, please send me at note at Bonkaye@aol.com so I can track them.
Please know that I am spending several hours each week investigating solutions for our printing and marketing problems. By the end of January, I will present the best information I have found for everyone to fit your own personal needs. At this time, many companies are coming to me trying to get your business, so I am cautiously looking at each one. If you have had publishing experiences either positive or negative, please feel free to send me that information.
Have a peaceful, healthy, and happy New Year. You should all be proud to be part of an important victory this year, and next year hopefully justice will be served.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Airleaf Victims and Supporters, December 22, 2007
Dear Airleaf Victims and Supporters,
This has been a victory week for all of us because Airleaf Publishing has finally closed down. This means that Carl Lau and his crew can no longer defraud new people and many of his established authors who are still unaware of the Airleaf’s non-existent status. Word is getting out daily as frustrated authors try to contact the Airleaf offices with no success; as a result, as of today, December 22, 2007, we have 288 people in our group of Airleaf Victims. Without all of your support and persistence, this would never have happened.
This has been a victory week for all of us because Airleaf Publishing has finally closed down. This means that Carl Lau and his crew can no longer defraud new people and many of his established authors who are still unaware of the Airleaf’s non-existent status. Word is getting out daily as frustrated authors try to contact the Airleaf offices with no success; as a result, as of today, December 22, 2007, we have 288 people in our group of Airleaf Victims. Without all of your support and persistence, this would never have happened.
I would like to thank all of you who have sent me loving, caring messages throughout this week since the announcement by Detective Buskirk. We have accomplished our first goal of shutting down Airleaf. Now we need to focus on our next two goals:
- Retrieving our money and materials due to us
- Making sure that criminal charges are brought against Carl Lau
These two steps will require some action on your part as far as sending in letters and reports to the proper authorities. Next week, I will send you an updated list of where to send your letters as we start applying pressure on the government resources that should be doing their jobs in resolving this disaster. You may want to put together a standard “mini-story” that you can cut and paste into a complaint form rather than writing a new one each time. If you need help in composing this, please let me know, and I will be happy to help you.
This week, I had a positive conversation with the Washington FBI who referred me to the local FBI in Indiana. The agent I spoke to was very kind and encouraging. He reemphasized how important it is to fill in the form that I sent you two weeks ago. Some of you have filled it out, but if you haven’t, please take a few moments to do this because this will create a case in our favor. If you have trouble filling it out, please have someone help you. In case you are not sure of the information, I have cut and paste the bulk of the form at the end of this email with the proper information filled in so you can print it out and copy it. I hope that helps. After you send in the form, please email me at Bonkaye@aol.com so I can track the complaints.
Here is the FBI link:
Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
As you all know by now, Detective Buskirk offered to help you retrieve your disks and other materials back from Airleaf. He requested that you email him with your information. By today, two of you wrote to me that his email was not going through. This could be due to the wrong email address. His email address is: jbuskirk@rnetinc.net. To the naked eye, the r netinc.net looks like an “m” when you put r and n together. Make sure you are sending it to rnetinc.net. But for those of you who prefer to mail your information, here is the mailing address:
Captain Jeffrey C. Buskirk Martinsville Police Department
PO Box 1415 59 S. Jefferson Street Martinsville, Indiana 46151
As we look to move ahead into the future seeking responsible solutions to our publishing problems, I am checking out every lead that is sent to me. At this time, I am exploring those companies that you, our authors, are recommending. I will not make any recommendations until I complete this research to give each of you the best alternatives for your particular need looking at the positives and negatives. However, I did want to give you one good lead that will help some of you.
I spoke with iUniverse on Thursday about their “Back in Print Publishing Program” for authors who currently have books in print. This is NOT for authors who are looking to get their books into print for the first time. Those services at iUniverse are offered at a much higher price. But if you have a book published by Airleaf, you can have it republished by iUniverse for the price of $299.00. They would become your new publisher and their publishing seal would be on your book.
I do have three books published by iUniverse. In fact, my first book was the last book the company bought before they went POD in 2000. Although I have gone in a different direction for my new publishing to a company that I prefer, I think this is an excellent alternative for those of you who have books in print by Airleaf. For that money, they are willing to design a new book cover, give you an ISBN number, and put your book on the traditional book outlets such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble on line. They also say they can do it in four weeks. I think this is extremely reasonable to have your book back in print. You do have to send iUniverse two copies of your book, and they make copies of each page. They cannot do this from a disk. If you are interested in pursuing this, you can write to Kaitlyn Hartman at this email address: kaitlyn.hartman@iuniverse.com. I would like to thank author Willard Gray for pursuing this information.
Here is the link for iUniverse’s republishing information:
iUniverse is a reputable Print On Demand book company. They are very reliable with their royalties, and I receive royalties from them like clockwork on the quarterly schedule as well as monthly book sales reports that you can look up on the website at any time. You can read about their royalty structures, and other information on this site:
Link to iUniverse royalty site:
Discounts, Royalties and Pricing
As I mentioned earlier, I have gone with a different publisher for my new book that was released several weeks ago. I believe there are publishers who are more reasonable and effective than iUniverse when it comes to publishing new work. Also, iUniverse does not have a return policy for those of you who want to do book signings in traditional book stores. Please keep in mind that any company that offers promotional packages promising you fame and fortune needs to really be questioned closely. We all made mistakes with Airleaf. Let’s try not to repeat them again. If you have had a positive publishing experience that you would like to share with me so I can explore it for a future update, please write to me and let me know.
One of our authors, Charles Gaskins, sent me this good news earlier in the week:
I just got off the phone with AARP credit card services and they are returning my $400.00. They are filing a dispute with them through VISA and if all goes well I will see my money in 7-10 days. It will work as they closed their doors, and shut their phone off so they can't answer that they are an operating company now. Thank the good Lord. Tell the rest to contact their credit card companies and do the same to dispute the charges since services were never rendered.Charles
I know some of you have tried calling your credit card companies, but it wouldn’t hurt to try one more time AND EXPLAIN that the company has closed their doors and left you without your book and/or promotional services. Please let me know if you have any positive results so I can share this with our others.
In last week’s Reporter Times news article, this was one statement that Carl Lau made to the reporter:
Lau said the company has been hurt by "lies" about the company. He said a report that two people had lost their homes because of the money they paid Airleaf for publishing and marketing expenses was untrue.
Kaye said at least two people who sent Airleaf money lost their homes. One invested $10,000 for a book and its marketing and another one $14,000, she said.
I like to make it clear that I have nothing to gain by making up stories since our campaign is based on exposing fraudulence, not creating it. To show how Carl Lau has no clue about the damage he has done to authors, I asked my dear new Airleaf Victim friend, Fred, if he would respond to this story for our authors. He is one of the two people I spoke about. In his own words:
I cannot believe it! Carl Lau now has the unmitigated audacity to deny our pain and suffering? Let me tell you, so that filth like him could know, that our pain and suffering is all too real, and some of us risked all and lost all. To me, it was a “give it all or nothing” proposition, and I ended up with nothing. As a result of my naiveté, if only to reiterate an all too familiar tale to fellow victims of Airleaf, I placed my trust in Carl Lau and his henchmen, risked at least $10,000.00 on a dream to get published and recognized, and indeed, as all of you know, lost it all. In addition, I ended up without a home, ostracized by my family, and had to flee to Mexico to accept the aid of some compassionate relatives. It was either that, or end up in the streets of Los Angeles, and have no contact whatsoever with Bonnie Kaye or anybody else. Here, far from my old home, at least I can use a computer, click on the Internet, and keep abreast of this grand crusade against the fraudsters, and I am heartened by the progress being made.
But my welcome is wearing thin, I fear, and my health, already on the decline for many months now, and certainly accelerated as a result of the stress and anxiety caused by the fraudsters, is getting worse, and I have no way of redressing the circumstances of my situation. And this is what Carl Lau calls lies fabricated by Bonnie Kaye? I am bleeding internally and urinating blood (pardon the graphic details) with fear my kidneys are deteriorating. I have trouble breathing again, and because of Lau I have no money, no hope of anything, never mind any access to simple medical help. I cannot think straight, have no options or opportunities, and am humiliated by circumstances this outrageous fortune has flung at me. Yes, and Lau is responsible!
When I first wrote my “story” regarding my involvement with Airleaf, I feared the worst, resigned myself to the prospect that I would not share in the victory against Airleaf, and thought I´d just take the easy way out and kill myself. The flight to Mexico, which made me feel like I was slipping out like a thief at night, seemed propitious at first, and I hoped would open new opportunities, restore calm to my soul, give me a new outlook on what´s left of my miserable life. But, I´m back to fearing the worst. If I sound like I´m talking nonsense, so be it, and wish that Carl Lau could walk in my shoes for a week, and then ask himself if all of this is a lie.
I´ve tried to do my part, as all of you have, and written to the detective, the attorney general of Indiana, the governor thereof, and Senator Lugar, and even requested of the miserable Lau to formally terminate my association with Airleaf. But, I am making myself even sicker trying to contain the anger and panic that Lau all the rest of them who worked at Airleaf have caused us. This issue, obviously, cannot leave my side, and so there is the constant mental and spiritual tug of war between reason and despair raging in my conscience... a war that reason is losing. Oh, and urinating blood and suffering excruciating pains in and around the groin area ain´t helping matters!
For the present, all I can do is pray for the rest of you, fellow Airleaf Victims, that you may rejoice in the victory that our beloved Bonnie is leading you towards.
Damn Lau and the wretched crooks of Airleaf! Why, why are people like this allowed to prosper? Are we fools for not being more judicious with our business choices? No, no! Even the best of us are misled by these hateful types. We expect evil to be transparent, black and white in a manner of speaking, and we so often forget that dishonesty is always dressed in the clothing of innocence or decency. We saw decency for what it was worth, and were slapped by the hard reality of insidious fraud.
In closing, I beg all victims of Airleaf to make Lau aware of just how much anguish and suffering he has caused, and better yet, let Senator Lugar, Governor Daniels, and all the bureaucrats in Indiana who are dragging their asses, know exactly what Lau and his accomplices have done. And, if they don’t do something, the whole nation will know of the thieves they are nurturing within their state borders, and see how they like it! Blessings to you and yours,
Sincerely, Frederick Martin-Del-Campo
Thank you, Fred, for sharing your story with our group.
After the beginning of the year, I will start putting together our media plan to expose what has happened with Airleaf. I am still working with FOX NY to get this story together. I will also have a plan of action that you, our victims, can use for the media if you are interested.
Final Personal Note
I would like to take this opportunity to wish our group a happy, healthy, and peaceful holiday season. As a relationship counselor, I know for some people, this is a difficult time of the year, including me. Although I rarely speak about my own life because I like to focus on our cause, I will share with you that I have lost both of my precious children within the last five years. My beautiful daughter, Jennifer, passed away in 2002 at the age of 22; my beloved son Jason died at the end of 2005 at the age of 23. Even though I have the support of a wonderful family, an extraordinary soul mate of 14 years, loving friends and co-workers, and an amazing support group from my counseling of straight women with gay husbands, there is still a void in my own heart that surfaces each year at this time. Thanks to you, my wonderful new Airleaf Victim family, I feel a new sense of inspiration, fulfillment, and purpose. Many of you have been there from the start of our fight in August with words of support, praise, and encouragement. I have met some of the finest people with the most integrity ever imaginable and formed some new friendships that will last long after this battle is over. Please know that I appreciate your support as much as you appreciate mine. I thank you all and admire your determination NOT to be a victim of one of the greatest publishing scams in history. Happiest of all holidays!
Love, Bonnie Kaye
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