August 9, 2009
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
I am writing this last correspondence to you to let you know that I am wrapping up my efforts on the Airleaf case. At this point of time, I have gone as far as I can go, and it’s time to let go. All of the petitions that many of you were kind enough to sign will be sent to the U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison this week. If by some miracle he changes his mind after reading them, I will notify you immediately.
I wanted to make sure that I explored every possible course of action, but I have to accept that I have come to a dead end. As so many of you have told me, it’s time to let go. From my point of view, there has been no justice for the Airleaf Victims. The fact that Airleaf closed down was due to our efforts in stopping their cash flow—not government efforts to stop the fraudulence. Airleaf was run by con men. They were experts in making people believe that we could become famous authors through a series of publicity efforts, which in almost every case, never happened. There were no European book fairs, no Bowker reviews, no Carnival cruise, or no Hollywood movies. There was just continued scamming of good people who worked long and hard at becoming authors.
Should you be angry? Of course you should. Most of you were taken for your hard work and hard earned money while others profited off of your innocence with airplanes, boats, trips to Hollywood where sordid affairs took place, and a plush life style built off of your suffering. In addition to the thieves who took your money so willingly but refused to provide you with the promised services, we had the State of Indiana to contend with. Its lack of concern for thieves in their State will always be my greatest reminder of how government doesn’t care about its people.
This has been a wonderful experience for me because it has given me the unique opportunity to get to know so many of you. I have developed life-time friendships with some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. I have read the words of some of the most prolific and profound writers imaginable. I had the fortune of meeting a number of you in my travels and in yours. So every moment that I put into this effort was well rewarded with new friendships that have enriched my life.
Although most of you don’t know much about me, I will share some things with you at this time. In the 1970’s, I spent nearly ten years of my life as an activist for a cause I believed in. I learned a lot in those days about organizing people and using the media to our advantage. I tried to take those skills and use them in our Airleaf campaign. Now with the advent of the Internet, it was easier in many ways. It allowed me to put up websites to alert people, send out press releases to the media, and stay in touch with many of you via email. In the past when I was in my 20’s, I went up against some of the most worthy opponents—and won--including the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in my battle to have Nazi War Criminals removed from this country, the New York Federal Court who did not allow people to view the deportation of a Nazi War Criminal, the City of Chicago (stopping neo-Nazi marches in Skokie, Illinois), the Russian government demanding the release of Russian Jews, and many others who were quite offensive to many people. I may not have won the war, but I certainly did win many battles.
Because of my younger years as an activist, I thought the Airleaf battle would be a piece of cake. It seemed so easy—people being robbed of their money. This was criminal—or so I thought. Little did I know that it wasn’t a crime to take people’s money under false pretenses in the State of Indiana. Silly me. I thought that robbing hundreds if not thousands of people would truly be against the law in any state in this country. It seemed so very cut and clear.
Sadly, at this point of time, I have come to realize that robbing people of millions of dollars is not a crime in Indiana—rather it is what they call “bad business.” Wow, I wish I was a crook. I know where I would relocate to. Indiana would be calling my name loud and clear. As I have told all of the officials that I have tried to convince to be on our side, I could set up a business selling dreams to people at $500.00 a shot, and if they didn’t come true, well, I could say at least I tried. Ha ha. No one there seemed to disagree with me.
The real culprits here are not just Carl Lau and Brien Jones. It’s the government of Indiana. In May of 2007, Airleaf was given an order through the Attorney General’s office stating that they would not conduct any more bad business with customers after having to pay out $12,000.00 to two authors and being issued an AVC order. When our first complaints started going to the AG’s office back in August when I sent the first of hundreds to come, nothing happened. Well, almost nothing. Actually, the Assistant AG at that time, Terry Tolliver, went with our police detective Jeff Buskirk to raid the Airleaf computers in October. This made me feel optimistic. But that was the end of the road. Nothing more came from that. When the new assistant AG took over, Tom Irons, he went to battle for us and a judgment was handed down five months after Airleaf closed. The problem was that the case stopped there. It was a “good will” gesture with no results. Carl Lau lost his home to the IRS, and supposedly his boat wasn’t worth going after. His partial ownership in the airplane wasn’t worth it either I suppose.
I believe that if anyone is guilty, it’s the government of Indiana that could have acted months before Airleaf shut down to demand that our money be returned, but they didn’t. And the final blow was when the U.S. Attorney, Timothy Morrison, refused to consider our case “criminal.”
I have pursued every possible course of action including writing to government officials in Washington, the President, every state representative and state senator in Indiana, the congressmen of the state, and the senators of the state. Heck, I even wrote to the governor’s wife pleading for help. Only one in over 80 representatives that I wrote to responded telling me that it wasn’t a State issue. So what’s new? I already figured that out with the overwhelming mounds of rejection that came my way in the form of silence.
I recently spoke to the lawyer of one of our victims who said we could pursue the case if we put up money. It would take lots of money—thousands of dollars. Then there is no guarantee that we would see anything. After all, Carl Lau lost his home and his business. What will we be able to take from? However, if a group of you would like to spend money pursuing this, please let me know.
So let me share some final thoughts with you.
Last year, a group of us began an author’s co-op, Books of Excellence. It’s a way for people to have a site they can refer people to if they don’t have their own website. We were overly ambitious in hoping people would buy five books a year from other authors. Some did; others did not. The majority of us decided this year just to pay yearly due for upkeep and publicity. I will be starting a new internet radio show in September with our authors one hour a week. This way, authors can promote their books via the computer radio stations and generate some business. We would be happy to have you join us. The cost to join is $60.00 for the first year which gives you a place on the front page of the website as well as your own page where you can advertise you and your books. After the first year, the dues are $25.00 a year. You can visit our site at www.BooksOfExcellence.com.
Many of you came to me with questions about republishing. There are three publishers that I feel confident in recommending to you. The first is my own publisher, CCB Publishing. Several dozen of us have republished there. You can read our testimonials on the website at www.CCBPublishing.com. The price is excellent, the service superb, and in a few weeks, your book is out in the market. Paul Rabinowitz, my publishing hero, works closely with each and every author day and night. He has all books distributed through not only local channels including Amazon and Barnes and Noble, but also the European channels, e-books, and his newest venture, The Expresso Book Machine. Here is some information about EBM:
CCB Publishing is pleased to announce a new distribution channel for its authors’ books. Placed primarily in bookstores and libraries, the Espresso Book Machine® (the “EBM”), a Time Magazine “Best Invention of 2007,” is essentially an ATM for books. The EBM automatically prints, binds and trims on demand at point of sale perfect-bound library-quality paperback books with full-color covers that are indistinguishable from most books on a bookstore shelf. The EBM can manufacture a 300-page book in less than 4 minutes while the customer waits. Books with black and white interiors will be universally available, while books with color interiors will only be available from certain sites. In addition to Time Magazine, this revolutionary new technology has been featured by The New York Times, Newsweek, Fortune, CNN and NPR.
Other participating publishers of note include John Wiley & Sons, Hachette Book Group, McGraw-Hill, Simon & Schuster, Clements Publishing, Information Age Publishing, Macmillan, University of California Press and W.W. Norton.
In addition to being featured at the Book Fair in London, England and at BookExpo America in New York City, there have been 16 EBM installations to date with many more planned. In addition to the following locations, current plans for 2009 include new installations in the United Kingdom through the Blackwell Ltd. chain of bookstores, in Australia through the Angus & Robertson chain and related bookstores, as well as in multiple locations at universities, bookstores and other retailers in North America and around the world.
Current locations:
• World Bank InfoShop, Washington, D.C., USA
• New York Public Library, New York, NY, USA
• New Orleans Public Library, New Orleans, LA, USA
• Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA, USA
• University of Michigan Library, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
• Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT, USA
• Brigham Young University Bookstore, Provo, UT, USA
• University of Alberta Bookstore, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• McMaster University Bookstore, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• University of Waterloo Bookstore, Ontario, Canada
• McGill University Library, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Newsstand UK, London, England
• Blackwell’s Bookstore, London, England
• Angus & Robertson Bookstore, Melbourne, Australia
• University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
• Library of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt
Paul delivers what he promises—and everything is included in his one price of $750.00. This also includes 20 FREE BOOKS. If you would like to have your book listed as “returnable” for book store book signings, CCB can do this for the low cost of $100.00 for one year. If you check with other companies like Authorhouse, you’ll see that they charge $599.00 for this service. (Of course they are located in Indiana too, so don’t try to fight it!) You can also buy your books from Paul at $2.00 over the cost of printing plus shipping and handling.
The second publisher that I would like to recommend is Mountain Valley Publishing, owned by Bob Denton. I have come to know, care about, and appreciate Bob over the past year and a half. I wasn’t very nice to him in our early days, accusing him of working with Airleaf to hurt writers. I was wrong, and I know I’ve said it before—and I’ll say it again. Bob was used and manipulated by Airleaf as many other well-meaning employees were, and he did quit when he realized that there was no hope and authors were being screwed two months before the closing of Airleaf. He did try hard for authors, especially once Airleaf closed down. Bob was able—and is still able and willing-- to retrieve authors’ disks, and for many of them before the flood, their books that were sitting in the Airleaf offices. Sadly, once the flood came, Airleaf was flooded out along with nearly 50,000 books—and of course, no flood insurance.
Bob has republished books for many Airleaf authors. I have spoken with a number of them and they are always thrilled by his quickness, quality, and customer service. I have not heard one complaint yet from anyone using Mountain Valley Publishing—only words of praise. Bob does everything for authors from cover design, ISBN number, and bar code to Internet distribution. He has a special deal for Airleaf authors to republish your Airleaf book for $750.00 which includes 25 copies for free. If you want to buy your books, he only charges for the cost of printing plus shipping and handling which is an excellent deal. If authors have a new book, Bob will publish that for $995.00 and give authors 25 copies of the book which is still an excellent deal. You can write to Bob at bdenton308@comcast.net. You will find his contact information if you want to chat with him. You can also see his website at: www.MoutainValleyPublishing.com. Please read his list of testimonials from happy authors if you would like to become one of them.
One other publisher that I have heard wonderful things about is Helen Compton from Artship Publishing. Helen is a sponsor at our Books of Excellence co-op. Several of our victims are republishing with her and have the kindest words to say about their experiences with Helen. She gives tremendous thought and help with putting books together, designing the covers, and taking it through the publishing process. You can feel free to visit her site and get her contact information by visiting: http://www.galleryartship.com/ebook.html
On a side issue, I received a letter last week from a woman in Indiana. She wrote:
Bonnie,
My name is Linda and I have been following the Airleaf story with your group. I think you have a great group of writers there and I wondered if they would want to participate in a fundraiser to help raise money for cancer research. My relay for life team is going to have a celebrity auction and we're looking for writers willing to donate an autograph book or photo. If anyone would want to participate they can send them to
Linda Williams
309 E South St
Martinsville, IN 46151
This auction is in memory of two friends who lost their own battles with cancer; Rita Greenwood and Brenda Wisman. Thank you for your time.
Linda
If you would be willing to donate a book or two to this worthy cause, know that it will go for something positive in life. Please send your books to Linda at the above address.
Finally, I would like to thank all of you who put your faith in me. The battle of Airleaf Victims started for me during the year that I lost my beloved son, Jason, at the age of 23 due to his rare illness that was misdiagnosed in his final battle to live. Three years earlier, I had lost my daughter, Jennifer, age 22. My life was in a dark place when this battle began. I felt that life had robbed me of my greatest treasures, and now, once again, I was being robbed. I knew I couldn’t save my children—that was out of my control. But I didn’t want to feel like a victim. I always taught my children to stand up for something you believe in. I taught them that there are always hands reaching out to you—some to pull you up; other to drag you down. It’s my “Misery loves Company” theory of why people look to drag you down. I extended my hand with kindness in the hopes of pulling all of us out of the darkness that entered our lives when men with dishonorable intentions were lurking in our midst. Nearly 600 of you reached back and made this battle your battle so that you wouldn’t remain a victim—but rather a victor.
As I said earlier, I have met some of the finest people imaginable through this battle. I have relived your horrors story after story of how you were fooled and tricked into throwing your hard earned money out the window. There were many nights I cried myself to sleep thinking about your pain, and I made it my pain. Then I went through this horror all over again when some of our victims told me how they were being “re-victimized” by Brien Jones in his new company, Jones Harvest. Again I sent out notices to people to stop paying for services that will never happen. I gave Mr. Jones a run for his money, but he runs faster than me. I have over 80 letters from victims of his, but once again, the government of Indiana is impotent about making this a crime. At this point, I’m ending my battle against him as well. Too much negative energy is being wasted on one pathetic man. If authors aren’t willing to believe all the warnings put in front of them, well, so be it. Let their money be taken from them once again.
I would like to thank my predatory publishing guru Victoria Strauss for helping me through this maze and mess. Victoria was a constant source of inspiration, who helped me during some of my darkest moments when I kept feeling like throwing in the towel. Victoria and her partner, Ann Crispin, are the true fighters for the cause of predatory publishing. They have made this their life’s mission through their website Writer Beware. You can view their site at http://www.sfwa.org/beware/. Put that site in your favorites to keep referring back to because it will be a continued source of inspiration. Anytime you’re not sure about a company, check there first. Ask the experts who keep on top of this daily.
I would also like to thank Detective Jeff Buskirk from the Martinsville, Indiana police department. He made a hero’s effort to put this case together for us. He worked diligently day and night—and there were many nights—helping us present our proof of criminal action. Sadly, all of his efforts were also ignored. Jeff Buskirk helped me believe in the kindness of strangers. He could have said this wasn’t a case for him, but he never did that. He really needs to be commended for his good deeds in trying his best to “do the right thing.” I wish he lived in Philadelphia near me. He would truly be recognized for his good work.
Know that in moving ahead, I am always here for anyone who wants advice or for me to check out something for you. Please email me anytime at Bonkaye@aol.com. Many of you are my friends; some of you have become my extended family. We will always be linked through our tragedy, but we are survivors and have put life back together in spite of this.
Learn from this lesson, and hold your heads up high. You are receiving this email because you refused to walk away and chose to stand up and fight. For that reason alone, you are no longer a victim, but a victor.
Love, Bonnie Kaye
Showing posts with label Timothy Morrison. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Timothy Morrison. Show all posts
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Animal Farm Revisited
ANIMAL FARM REVISITED
When I was in high school, one of the books that left its profoundly affected me was Animal Farm by George Orwell. This was an expose of communism and how proclaimed “equality” led to slavery. It’s a story where the animals took over the farm seeking justice and equal rights for all animals, but in the end, the pigs outsmarted the rest of the animals and treated them worse than their human masters.
At this stage of my life, I can finally identify with one of the main characters of the book named Snowball. Snowball was one of the revolutionaries who believed in justice for the animals. He helped teach the other animals how to read and stand up for themselves. But this didn’t work for the greedy pig Napoleon. He wanted to live with special privileges at the expense of the other animals who were doing all the work. He knew that Snowball, the voice of sanity and reason, would circumvent his efforts to lead the animals back into slavery.
Napoleon started spreading lies about Snowball blaming him for everything that went wrong on the farm. When the other animals would question this, they were put down and isolated from the group until they agreed to believe the lies. Eventually, a pack of wild dogs attacked Snowball and drove him away once and for all. From that day forth, when anything broke on the farm or the benefits weren’t trickling down to the animals, it was blamed on Snowball. He was still creating havoc to ruin everything—or so the animals were told.
Brien Jones is a fraud. He has deceived so many people that I’ve even lost count. And when he fails, rather than accept responsibility, whose fault is it? Bonnie Kaye’s. Yep, it is all my fault. I have become his modern day Snowball.
Here’s an example of what Jones wrote to several complaining authors:
"The last time I sent out bookstore contacts, the author gave the list to Bonnie Kaye and she proceeded to call each and every one of them. Many of our books were returned. Now that list is proprietary. We should have kept it confidential from the start."
That’s pretty funny. No author has ever given me a bookstore contact. The ONLY bookstore I ever called was the one that Jones has pictured on his site. It is called Books N’ More an Indianapolis bookstore. It is there for anyone to view, so I called the store to see if the books were still being displayed. The owner told me they were taken down last July. It had nothing to do with Bonnie Kaye, but rather that the books weren’t selling and it was a temporary display.
One thing that should have kept confidential was the list of authors that Brien Jones provided me with to start the Airleaf Victims campaign. On his recent blog, he states:
"Everyone exalts Bonnie Kaye for putting together 600 Airleaf clients and closing the place down. In the teeny tiny world of untalented writers turned watchdogs and their blogs she reigns supreme. (Hey Lee, I knew you were a guy! It was an insult dumbass.) I wouldn’t include any further insults that could be used against you."
"However, there is another side to the Airleaf story, one never told. At the end of 2006 and the end of my time in Martinsville there were 3000 clients. I have no idea how many authors bought services from Airleaf in 2007 and 2008, I wasn’t there. So we’ll be conservative and add ZERO new clients after I left."
"Subtract out Bonnie’s 600 victims (and I believe they were victims) and that leaves 2400 Airleaf authors.Out of those estimated 2400 Airleaf non-victim authors, how many paid just for publishing? How many received their books and didn’t sign up for anything else?"
The truth is that Brien Jones provided me with the original list of approximately 500authors and their email addresses claiming these were “angry authors” who felt they were screwed by Airleaf. That’s how I started contacting authors in the beginning—with Brien’s list. I’ll be able to produce that for court when he someday takes me there as he keeps promising. Now it may be true that Airleaf had 3,000 clients—but I didn’t have access to the rest of that list like Brien had when he stole the data base from Airleaf to open his new company. And yes, I can prove that too because now I have the list. It’s with another list of his Jones Harvest clients with little notes he writes about each person next to their name so he doesn’t forget the stories he’s making up along the way along with some derogatory notes about some of his authors. That list was given to me courtesy of several of his ex-employees who felt that by giving it to me, it would be in good hands. I’ll be showing those in court as evidence as well. And also one more lie that Brien keeps stating over and over—Airleaf closed on December 21, 2007, not 2008. Brien had been out of there just about a year.
The funniest thing is that in the beginning of my Airleaf Victims campaign when I sent my letters to authors about being cheated by Airleaf, at least 80% of them were complaining about Brien Jones and not about Airleaf. He was the salesman who made promises to take their book to fame and fortune as he happily took their money but somehow ignored them after he drained them. In those days, I defended him to the hilt because I didn’t know any better. I believed his lies that he was a victim of Airleaf just like me. But getting back to the point, I didn’t have the list of 3,000 so there was no way for me to contact the other potential victims until recently. At this time, it would serve no purpose to contact authors because Airleaf is closed.
One last thought--even if his assumption was correct that there were 2,400 happy authors, does that negate the hardship, pain, and loss of money of the 600 who were scammed? Jones's logic would think so because that's how he conducts his business. It doesn't matter if over 80 people are accusing him of taking their money--he'll have a few dozen state they love him and that makes it okay.
And now for the update on the “Sue Bonnie Kaye” case. Brien is sending this letter to authors:
"Jones Harvest Publishing along with 230 (so far) plus SIX OTHER COMPANIES is finally filing suit against Bonnie Kaye. I already paid the Miller Law Group in West Lawn PA for the whole thing, so I don't need any money from you or anyone.
I have decided to include clients like you in the suit at no charge. Please believe me when I tell you her attacks on my company have hurt you and your books. You deserve compensation too."
"You don't have to do anything, or say anything, or pay anything, or go anywhere. You'll just get a share of whatever we get back.If you want a share of the settlement, all you have to do is say "Yes" and I'll add you to the list.
I would love it if you stood with us."
This is quite interesting because Brien doesn’t have 230 authors. According to his Amazon reports, he has approximately 150 authors who have published with him. And the funny thing is I have over 80 reports from authors who have been scammed by him who came to me for help, so somehow, these numbers just don’t add up.
But let’s say that Brien could find 5000 people to join a law suit against me. What is it he is suing me for? Telling the truth? Revealing that he has been deceiving authors and taking their money without providing services? Is this a crime? Are we all living on that Animal Farm where truth becomes lies and lies become the law?
By the way, in an effort to find a new way to make some money, since selling books isn’t what Brien is good at according to Brien when he tells authors:
"I hope you have noticed that you haven't received any letters about new bookselling packages. It's not because we ran out of stamps. We decided to make it or not, with the books and authors we have. We're still trying to find a way to sell books, when I come up with something I'll call."
Now that’s finally something that IS true! They are clueless in finding ways to sell books and they refuse to do what they have authors pay them for—like contacting every media outlet and bookstore within a 100 mile area of their homes.
So now here’s the Jones Harvest new letters sent to all the former Airleaf mailing list:
You don't need to send money or books.
I'll put your book on our websites. No charge, no obligation. I'll even make a few calls. If you want to send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)
I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.
http://www.jonesharvest.com/
http://www.authorgifts.com/
http://www.bookwheat.com/
http://www.myauthorprofile.com/
http://www.myperfectheart.com/
If you don’t pay anything and you don’t have to send me books, how can you become a “victim”?
Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075
Then when you say "yes" to this free offer agreeing to let Jones sell your book, here’s the next letter you get:
We have 800 books for sale on http://www.jonesharvest.com/ including yours. However, there are only 25 spots for book covers on the home page.
I can offer you one of those powerful places for 3 months for just $400. I can put your book on the top row for just $600! No one will have to type your name or title into the search box, your book is RIGHT THERE! That means any bookstore owner that looks at our site will see your cover!
I have one spot left on the top row, two on the second row and eleven more total. Whoever gets them first gets them!
Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075
The first book on the top prime row is “The Stone” by David Welden. According to the synopsis of the book:
The author reveals firsthand accounts of people who have been aboard alien ships. He also provides a detailed timeline of the chronology of Earth from 450,000 B.C. to 2023 B.C. Welden goes on to explain the genetics behind it all, including a discussion of mitochondrial DNA and the role of the Y chromosome.
This book was published by Jones Harvest in 2008 and the ranking on Amazon is #3,894,935. So if this is the first book on the first line giving it “prime time viewing,” you can imagine how well the others are selling—NOT. And yet, people are PAYING for those SPOTS?
I don’t understand how some people are still so suckered in. I have so many letters of people feeling ashamed for throwing their money into the bargain basement of the Jones Family Home, where their publishing company is located. Lots of people are spending lots of money, but who besides Jones is making lots of money?
There is no shame in being conned. It happens to decent, hard-working people who believe in the goodness of people. The shame is to allow it to keep happening or refusing to stop it when it happens again.
You don’t have to be a victim—you can be a victor. All you have to do is “Just Say No” when you receive an offer from Jones Harvest. If you want to give money to charity, make it a worthwhile one that you can at least use as a tax write-off.
Love, Bonnie Kaye
When I was in high school, one of the books that left its profoundly affected me was Animal Farm by George Orwell. This was an expose of communism and how proclaimed “equality” led to slavery. It’s a story where the animals took over the farm seeking justice and equal rights for all animals, but in the end, the pigs outsmarted the rest of the animals and treated them worse than their human masters.
At this stage of my life, I can finally identify with one of the main characters of the book named Snowball. Snowball was one of the revolutionaries who believed in justice for the animals. He helped teach the other animals how to read and stand up for themselves. But this didn’t work for the greedy pig Napoleon. He wanted to live with special privileges at the expense of the other animals who were doing all the work. He knew that Snowball, the voice of sanity and reason, would circumvent his efforts to lead the animals back into slavery.
Napoleon started spreading lies about Snowball blaming him for everything that went wrong on the farm. When the other animals would question this, they were put down and isolated from the group until they agreed to believe the lies. Eventually, a pack of wild dogs attacked Snowball and drove him away once and for all. From that day forth, when anything broke on the farm or the benefits weren’t trickling down to the animals, it was blamed on Snowball. He was still creating havoc to ruin everything—or so the animals were told.
Brien Jones is a fraud. He has deceived so many people that I’ve even lost count. And when he fails, rather than accept responsibility, whose fault is it? Bonnie Kaye’s. Yep, it is all my fault. I have become his modern day Snowball.
Here’s an example of what Jones wrote to several complaining authors:
"The last time I sent out bookstore contacts, the author gave the list to Bonnie Kaye and she proceeded to call each and every one of them. Many of our books were returned. Now that list is proprietary. We should have kept it confidential from the start."
That’s pretty funny. No author has ever given me a bookstore contact. The ONLY bookstore I ever called was the one that Jones has pictured on his site. It is called Books N’ More an Indianapolis bookstore. It is there for anyone to view, so I called the store to see if the books were still being displayed. The owner told me they were taken down last July. It had nothing to do with Bonnie Kaye, but rather that the books weren’t selling and it was a temporary display.
One thing that should have kept confidential was the list of authors that Brien Jones provided me with to start the Airleaf Victims campaign. On his recent blog, he states:
"Everyone exalts Bonnie Kaye for putting together 600 Airleaf clients and closing the place down. In the teeny tiny world of untalented writers turned watchdogs and their blogs she reigns supreme. (Hey Lee, I knew you were a guy! It was an insult dumbass.) I wouldn’t include any further insults that could be used against you."
"However, there is another side to the Airleaf story, one never told. At the end of 2006 and the end of my time in Martinsville there were 3000 clients. I have no idea how many authors bought services from Airleaf in 2007 and 2008, I wasn’t there. So we’ll be conservative and add ZERO new clients after I left."
"Subtract out Bonnie’s 600 victims (and I believe they were victims) and that leaves 2400 Airleaf authors.Out of those estimated 2400 Airleaf non-victim authors, how many paid just for publishing? How many received their books and didn’t sign up for anything else?"
The truth is that Brien Jones provided me with the original list of approximately 500authors and their email addresses claiming these were “angry authors” who felt they were screwed by Airleaf. That’s how I started contacting authors in the beginning—with Brien’s list. I’ll be able to produce that for court when he someday takes me there as he keeps promising. Now it may be true that Airleaf had 3,000 clients—but I didn’t have access to the rest of that list like Brien had when he stole the data base from Airleaf to open his new company. And yes, I can prove that too because now I have the list. It’s with another list of his Jones Harvest clients with little notes he writes about each person next to their name so he doesn’t forget the stories he’s making up along the way along with some derogatory notes about some of his authors. That list was given to me courtesy of several of his ex-employees who felt that by giving it to me, it would be in good hands. I’ll be showing those in court as evidence as well. And also one more lie that Brien keeps stating over and over—Airleaf closed on December 21, 2007, not 2008. Brien had been out of there just about a year.
The funniest thing is that in the beginning of my Airleaf Victims campaign when I sent my letters to authors about being cheated by Airleaf, at least 80% of them were complaining about Brien Jones and not about Airleaf. He was the salesman who made promises to take their book to fame and fortune as he happily took their money but somehow ignored them after he drained them. In those days, I defended him to the hilt because I didn’t know any better. I believed his lies that he was a victim of Airleaf just like me. But getting back to the point, I didn’t have the list of 3,000 so there was no way for me to contact the other potential victims until recently. At this time, it would serve no purpose to contact authors because Airleaf is closed.
One last thought--even if his assumption was correct that there were 2,400 happy authors, does that negate the hardship, pain, and loss of money of the 600 who were scammed? Jones's logic would think so because that's how he conducts his business. It doesn't matter if over 80 people are accusing him of taking their money--he'll have a few dozen state they love him and that makes it okay.
And now for the update on the “Sue Bonnie Kaye” case. Brien is sending this letter to authors:
"Jones Harvest Publishing along with 230 (so far) plus SIX OTHER COMPANIES is finally filing suit against Bonnie Kaye. I already paid the Miller Law Group in West Lawn PA for the whole thing, so I don't need any money from you or anyone.
I have decided to include clients like you in the suit at no charge. Please believe me when I tell you her attacks on my company have hurt you and your books. You deserve compensation too."
"You don't have to do anything, or say anything, or pay anything, or go anywhere. You'll just get a share of whatever we get back.If you want a share of the settlement, all you have to do is say "Yes" and I'll add you to the list.
I would love it if you stood with us."
This is quite interesting because Brien doesn’t have 230 authors. According to his Amazon reports, he has approximately 150 authors who have published with him. And the funny thing is I have over 80 reports from authors who have been scammed by him who came to me for help, so somehow, these numbers just don’t add up.
But let’s say that Brien could find 5000 people to join a law suit against me. What is it he is suing me for? Telling the truth? Revealing that he has been deceiving authors and taking their money without providing services? Is this a crime? Are we all living on that Animal Farm where truth becomes lies and lies become the law?
By the way, in an effort to find a new way to make some money, since selling books isn’t what Brien is good at according to Brien when he tells authors:
"I hope you have noticed that you haven't received any letters about new bookselling packages. It's not because we ran out of stamps. We decided to make it or not, with the books and authors we have. We're still trying to find a way to sell books, when I come up with something I'll call."
Now that’s finally something that IS true! They are clueless in finding ways to sell books and they refuse to do what they have authors pay them for—like contacting every media outlet and bookstore within a 100 mile area of their homes.
So now here’s the Jones Harvest new letters sent to all the former Airleaf mailing list:
You don't need to send money or books.
I'll put your book on our websites. No charge, no obligation. I'll even make a few calls. If you want to send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)
I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.
http://www.jonesharvest.com/
http://www.authorgifts.com/
http://www.bookwheat.com/
http://www.myauthorprofile.com/
http://www.myperfectheart.com/
If you don’t pay anything and you don’t have to send me books, how can you become a “victim”?
Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075
Then when you say "yes" to this free offer agreeing to let Jones sell your book, here’s the next letter you get:
We have 800 books for sale on http://www.jonesharvest.com/ including yours. However, there are only 25 spots for book covers on the home page.
I can offer you one of those powerful places for 3 months for just $400. I can put your book on the top row for just $600! No one will have to type your name or title into the search box, your book is RIGHT THERE! That means any bookstore owner that looks at our site will see your cover!
I have one spot left on the top row, two on the second row and eleven more total. Whoever gets them first gets them!
Brien Jones
Author Celebrity Assoc.
Jones Harvest Publishing
Toll-Free 877-400-0075
The first book on the top prime row is “The Stone” by David Welden. According to the synopsis of the book:
The author reveals firsthand accounts of people who have been aboard alien ships. He also provides a detailed timeline of the chronology of Earth from 450,000 B.C. to 2023 B.C. Welden goes on to explain the genetics behind it all, including a discussion of mitochondrial DNA and the role of the Y chromosome.
This book was published by Jones Harvest in 2008 and the ranking on Amazon is #3,894,935. So if this is the first book on the first line giving it “prime time viewing,” you can imagine how well the others are selling—NOT. And yet, people are PAYING for those SPOTS?
I don’t understand how some people are still so suckered in. I have so many letters of people feeling ashamed for throwing their money into the bargain basement of the Jones Family Home, where their publishing company is located. Lots of people are spending lots of money, but who besides Jones is making lots of money?
There is no shame in being conned. It happens to decent, hard-working people who believe in the goodness of people. The shame is to allow it to keep happening or refusing to stop it when it happens again.
You don’t have to be a victim—you can be a victor. All you have to do is “Just Say No” when you receive an offer from Jones Harvest. If you want to give money to charity, make it a worthwhile one that you can at least use as a tax write-off.
Love, Bonnie Kaye
Sunday, April 19, 2009
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE APRIL 19, 2009
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE APRIL 18, 2009
Dear Airleaf Victims, JH Victims, and Author Friends,
First, let me thank all of you who have responded with your support of willingness to sign petitions for the U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison. In addition to our group, we had 29 people respond with their kind offers of support to sign petitions after they read about us on Victoria Strauss’ blog on Writer Beware! I will be speaking in Connecticut on May 9 at the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association on the issue of Predatory Publishing. I will take petitions with me to the event to get them signed as well. This is an issue that affects every independent author and needs to be heard.
I had sent a letter to the Attorney General in Washington. On Monday, I received this response:
Dear Ms. Kaye:
This responds to your of March 11, 2009, letter to Kenneth E. Melson, Director, Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), seeking to have the owner of a private company criminal charges with fraud. Because of the nature of your request, your letter was referred to the General Counsel’s Office, EOUSA, Department of Justice (DOJ) for a response.
United States Attorneys, and their offices, represent the United States and prosecute violators of Federal law. By law, they have considerable discretion in determining whom to investigate or prosecute and what charges, if any to bring. EOUSA is not a supervisory agency for the United States Attorneys’ Offices (USAO’s). We provide general executive assistance, policy development, administrative management direction and oversight, and operational support for the 93 United States Attorneys’ Offices (USAOs). Accordingly, EOUSA does not have the authority to require a United States Attorney to investigate alleged criminal activity. This is a matter solely within the discretion of the U.S. Attorney and his office.
We appreciate the confidence which prompted your letter.
Sincerely,
Jay Macklin
General Counsel
I think that Mr. Macklin misinterpreted my request of “desperation” by describing it as “confidence,” of which I have none at this point. In other words, this office will not help us.
This week, I received two notes of passive-aggressive--bordering on antagonistic-- communication from Timothy Morrison, the U.S. Attorney in Indiana. I am sending you a copy of my original letter, his response to me, my response back, and his latest letter to me on Friday, April 17. Mr. Morrison is “picking” at my words and trying to deflect from the reality of our situation. After you read them, you’ll realize that we are going nowhere fast. However, that should make us much more determined to make this into a national matter.
In Mr. Morrison’s last email to me, as you’ll read later on, he states:
Few lawyers worth their salt are prepared to ignore new facts. When you e-mailed you were bringing “petitions from our victims with their stories,” I would certainly read those regardless of what was previously submitted to investigators.
I can’t imagine what “new facts” we could submit to Mr. Morrison unless the federal investigators were withholding information from him. This case is becoming more bizarre by the moment, but we cannot let this discourage us. I’m sure the government of Indiana would like us to go away, but we won’t. One author commented that “Bernie Madoff stole from millionaires and that was a crime, but a man who steals from hard working average people is ignored.”
I have attached a copy of our petition which is a Microsoft word document. You can either type in the information or print it out and write it in. Don’t worry if it goes into a second or third page. Just tell factually what has happened to you. If you have a printer, I’d appreciate it if you could print it out and sign it and send it to me. If you don’t have a printer, you can type in an X at the end where you give verify that you have filled this out and give me permission to deliver your letter to Mr. Morrison’s office.
Please be specific in describing what you paid for. If you would like to send me any back up or copies of information for me to submit such as promotional fliers of services you bought, feel free to do so.
Here is the correspondence this week:
From: BonKaye@aol.com [mailto:BonKaye@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 6:47 PM
To: USAINS-Webmaster
Subject: From Bonnie Kaye, Organizer, Airleaf Victims
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I was informed by the Indiana FBI today that you will not be following through with our case of fraud against Airleaf Publishing. I want you to know that I and the members of group find this totally unacceptable. I have provided the federal authorities with more than enough evidence proving criminal fraud. We have nearly 600 members who are part of our group from the United States and other parts of the world who have been robbed of our money, hopes, dreams, materials, and dignity. There are hundreds of more victims of this company that haven't found their way to us yet. Just within our group, the money stolen is in excess of TWO MILLION DOLLARS. We want justice against Airleaf Publishing and Carl Lau, the owner who not only took our money while he was in business, but continued to steal our royalties after he closed his company for many months to come.
By allowing this crime to go unpunished, you are sending out a message to the other predatory publishers that continue stealing money from unsuspecting authors that it is okay to perpetrate fraud in Indiana without getting punished.
We are committed to finding justice against this fraudulence. I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June to present you with petitions from our victims with their stories. We will contact every government agency in your state asking them to intercede on our behalf. We will also contact your local media and the national media to bring attention to this injustice. We have been patiently waiting for a year and a half for justice, but now you have decided not to help us find it.
This is a true disgrace, Mr. Morrison.
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed., Organizer, Airleaf Victims
In a message dated 4/13/2009 2:43:40 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, USAINS.Webmaster@usdoj.gov writes:
Dear Ms. Kaye:
I would be pleased to meet with you sometime in June to receive written accounts from persons who have lost money in the Airleaf transactions. Please contact me when your schedule firms up so that we can arrange a mutually convenient time.
Also feel free to contact the national and local media and “every government agency” in Indiana. However, that may duplicate, in part, what you have already done. You wrote me on February 16, 2008, that you were “very distraught at the response of the Indiana government agencies, including the Attorney General’s office, the Governor’s office and the two State Senator offices.”
Nonetheless, on June 25, 2008, you wrote that the Indiana Attorney General had, in fact, filed civil suit against Lau and Airleaf and that you had identified 450 victims. A copy of the Consent Judgment dated July 8, 2008 is attached in a .pdf file. This judgment lists 117 victims and a $317,881.96 loss. Could you send me a copy of the supplemental judgments that include the rest of your people? Thanks.
I look forward to seeing you in June.
Tim Morrison, United States Attorney
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I feel as if we are living in two different worlds. You stated that you'd be pleased to meet with me to receive written accounts from persons who lost money from Airleaf. I have spent the past 18 months working with Rob Simpson from the FBI providing him with case after case of criminal action. Rob called me a week ago on Friday telling me that he and the postal authority presented the case to your office, and your office turned us down for criminal charges stating that you didn't feel that the cases met the criminal statutes of Indiana. He stated he wanted to call me personally because he felt bad that this decision was made. He told me he believed we had a case. I have spent hundreds of hours making sure that our group has sent in information and documentation about their cases to the FBI and postal inspector's office. Please explain how, after all of this time, you don't seem to know about these cases.
If Rob Simpson has given me incorrect information about your decision, this needs to be addressed. If you are saying you didn't say you won't prosecute the case, then please tell me.
At that point, I will apologize to you and let our members and supporters know that you are reviewing the case. Since the FBI and postal authorities have collected all of the information including interviews with ex-employees, why can't you ask them for the information? The police captain of Martinsville, Jeff Buskirk, spent over six months meticulously putting together all of our files. Would you like me to ask him to send them to you as well?
I would prefer not to come to Indiana if I don't need to. It would be a costly trip for me. I would prefer not to have to spend endless more hours getting petitions from our victims and supporters. I would be willing to stop all action if you are telling me that you will review the cases that have been collected by your agencies and the Martinsville police. Somehow, there seems to be a large disconnect here, and I would like to know what it is.
As far as the AG's office, the fact that a civil judgment was handed down means nothing to me. It was symbolic only. The cases that were part of the judgment were a small number of the total number of authors because the AG's office felt they would file the judgment based on of a two-year cohort. That's why there are so many more complaints than what the AG has in the judgment. There is no money to be recovered from the owner as I knew there wouldn't be from the beginning. This is why criminal charges are so important to us. The AG's office should have put a stop to Airleaf months before they went out of business since there was an AVC order issued in May of 2007. When the first complaints started flowing into their office, that should have been cause enough to close Airleaf down. But there was nothing done, allowing Airleaf to continue stealing money from people until my campaign forced them to close by cutting off the cash flow.
There is another crook in your state, Brien Jones, of Jones Harvest Publishing in Bloomington, who picked up the slack where Airleaf left off. He was the Executive Vice President of Airleaf who started his own "publishing" company in January of 2007. He laughs to people that Indiana government doesn't do anything while he continues to rob people of thousands of dollars. I have over 70 complaints from his new victims. I am working hard to end his business the same way I did Airleaf's.
Complaints were sent to the federal authorities as early as August 2007 when they started investigating it. Something should have been done then--but nothing was.
So, as far as I see it, nothing was done to bring justice to the criminals who stole our money. I am sure you have been reading the letters sent to you by some of our victims. It's not that just money was lost. For some people, it was their life savings. I have loads of elderly and handicapped people whose lives were shattered from this criminal action. We want justice, and this is in your hands. Martinsville couldn't handle the case because they don't have the resources. The AG's office handed down a judgment that didn't help us--it was too late to claim anything. Therefore, we are seeking, as we have from the beginning, criminal charges against the owner, Carl Lau, for what he has done to us.
Please advise me of what you are willing to do. Also please advise me if the FBI gave me incorrect information because that would really be discouraging.
Thank you for your response.
Bonnie Kaye
April 18, 2009
Dear Ms. Kaye:
You e-mailed that “I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June to present you with petitions from our victims with their stories.” I willingly accepted a meeting upon my assumption that you planned to come to Indiana in June. Now you e-mail that “I would prefer not to come to Indiana if I don't need to. It would be a costly trip for me. I would prefer not to have to spend endless more hours getting petitions from our victims and supporters.” There is no obligation for you to come to Indiana. I am directing you to do nothing. I obviously misinterpreted “I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June.”
Few lawyers worth their salt are prepared to ignore new facts. When you e-mailed you were bringing “petitions from our victims with their stories,” I would certainly read those regardless of what was previously submitted to investigators. The e-mails your people sent me contain sparse facts about their situation. Fewer than half were listed on the civil judgment obtained by the Indiana Attorney General and most e-mails contained neither a loss figure nor “note stating your story” as you also requested. Most did follow your explicit e-mail directions to advise me they were victims of criminal fraud and express outrage. “.. (Y)ou are simply either lazy or a coward--or perhaps both” or “you are incompetent and impotent and negligent” were unfortunately representative. Many cited the “facts” that the FBI and the laws of Indiana were on their side.
These cited “facts” are not determinative, but they are wrong. For instance, Rob Simpson works on an FBI-sponsored task force in his capacity as an Indiana State Police detective. He is not a Special Agent of the FBI. “I received a phone call from our FBI agent who was investigating the case,” you e-mailed your people. “The FBI agent was on our side.” I assume that was a misunderstanding. There must have been a misunderstanding, too, when Mr. Simpson told you that my office “didn’t feel the cases met the criminal statutes of Indiana.” My office is without jurisdiction to enforce the criminal statutes of Indiana. We enforce federal criminal law.
The Indiana Attorney General’s civil judgment may be “symbolic” and “mean nothing” to you, as you e-mailed me, but you are one of only 117 persons included, while the majority of your people are not. Restitution orders in criminal cases, just as judgments in civil cases, are frequently not collectable. That is unfortunately true. However, they are not without value, since a defendant who inherits money, wins on a lottery ticket or at a state casino can have that money attached on this outstanding judgment. I have seen it happen. And if it does, fundamental fairness demands each name and loss amount appear on an existing judgment. You e-mailed that the AG filed on your behalf and the others based upon “a two-year cohort.” I am unfamiliar with that term. What does it mean?
I remain prepared to meet with you, but impose no duty on you to travel here or collect further information.
Tim Morrison
United States Attorney
And so, group members, this summer I will be visiting Indiana. Maybe I’ll even meet with U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison. At least I’ll make sure he receives our petitions to review the case.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be asking you to take a few moments to send emails to the leaders of Indiana to try to push them to move forward with our case. We cannot get discouraged because this is what people who should be doing their jobs are hoping for.
With love, hope, and determination,
Bonnie Kaye
Dear Airleaf Victims, JH Victims, and Author Friends,
First, let me thank all of you who have responded with your support of willingness to sign petitions for the U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison. In addition to our group, we had 29 people respond with their kind offers of support to sign petitions after they read about us on Victoria Strauss’ blog on Writer Beware! I will be speaking in Connecticut on May 9 at the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association on the issue of Predatory Publishing. I will take petitions with me to the event to get them signed as well. This is an issue that affects every independent author and needs to be heard.
I had sent a letter to the Attorney General in Washington. On Monday, I received this response:
Dear Ms. Kaye:
This responds to your of March 11, 2009, letter to Kenneth E. Melson, Director, Executive Office for United States Attorneys (EOUSA), seeking to have the owner of a private company criminal charges with fraud. Because of the nature of your request, your letter was referred to the General Counsel’s Office, EOUSA, Department of Justice (DOJ) for a response.
United States Attorneys, and their offices, represent the United States and prosecute violators of Federal law. By law, they have considerable discretion in determining whom to investigate or prosecute and what charges, if any to bring. EOUSA is not a supervisory agency for the United States Attorneys’ Offices (USAO’s). We provide general executive assistance, policy development, administrative management direction and oversight, and operational support for the 93 United States Attorneys’ Offices (USAOs). Accordingly, EOUSA does not have the authority to require a United States Attorney to investigate alleged criminal activity. This is a matter solely within the discretion of the U.S. Attorney and his office.
We appreciate the confidence which prompted your letter.
Sincerely,
Jay Macklin
General Counsel
I think that Mr. Macklin misinterpreted my request of “desperation” by describing it as “confidence,” of which I have none at this point. In other words, this office will not help us.
This week, I received two notes of passive-aggressive--bordering on antagonistic-- communication from Timothy Morrison, the U.S. Attorney in Indiana. I am sending you a copy of my original letter, his response to me, my response back, and his latest letter to me on Friday, April 17. Mr. Morrison is “picking” at my words and trying to deflect from the reality of our situation. After you read them, you’ll realize that we are going nowhere fast. However, that should make us much more determined to make this into a national matter.
In Mr. Morrison’s last email to me, as you’ll read later on, he states:
Few lawyers worth their salt are prepared to ignore new facts. When you e-mailed you were bringing “petitions from our victims with their stories,” I would certainly read those regardless of what was previously submitted to investigators.
I can’t imagine what “new facts” we could submit to Mr. Morrison unless the federal investigators were withholding information from him. This case is becoming more bizarre by the moment, but we cannot let this discourage us. I’m sure the government of Indiana would like us to go away, but we won’t. One author commented that “Bernie Madoff stole from millionaires and that was a crime, but a man who steals from hard working average people is ignored.”
I have attached a copy of our petition which is a Microsoft word document. You can either type in the information or print it out and write it in. Don’t worry if it goes into a second or third page. Just tell factually what has happened to you. If you have a printer, I’d appreciate it if you could print it out and sign it and send it to me. If you don’t have a printer, you can type in an X at the end where you give verify that you have filled this out and give me permission to deliver your letter to Mr. Morrison’s office.
Please be specific in describing what you paid for. If you would like to send me any back up or copies of information for me to submit such as promotional fliers of services you bought, feel free to do so.
Here is the correspondence this week:
From: BonKaye@aol.com [mailto:BonKaye@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 6:47 PM
To: USAINS-Webmaster
Subject: From Bonnie Kaye, Organizer, Airleaf Victims
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I was informed by the Indiana FBI today that you will not be following through with our case of fraud against Airleaf Publishing. I want you to know that I and the members of group find this totally unacceptable. I have provided the federal authorities with more than enough evidence proving criminal fraud. We have nearly 600 members who are part of our group from the United States and other parts of the world who have been robbed of our money, hopes, dreams, materials, and dignity. There are hundreds of more victims of this company that haven't found their way to us yet. Just within our group, the money stolen is in excess of TWO MILLION DOLLARS. We want justice against Airleaf Publishing and Carl Lau, the owner who not only took our money while he was in business, but continued to steal our royalties after he closed his company for many months to come.
By allowing this crime to go unpunished, you are sending out a message to the other predatory publishers that continue stealing money from unsuspecting authors that it is okay to perpetrate fraud in Indiana without getting punished.
We are committed to finding justice against this fraudulence. I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June to present you with petitions from our victims with their stories. We will contact every government agency in your state asking them to intercede on our behalf. We will also contact your local media and the national media to bring attention to this injustice. We have been patiently waiting for a year and a half for justice, but now you have decided not to help us find it.
This is a true disgrace, Mr. Morrison.
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed., Organizer, Airleaf Victims
In a message dated 4/13/2009 2:43:40 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, USAINS.Webmaster@usdoj.gov writes:
Dear Ms. Kaye:
I would be pleased to meet with you sometime in June to receive written accounts from persons who have lost money in the Airleaf transactions. Please contact me when your schedule firms up so that we can arrange a mutually convenient time.
Also feel free to contact the national and local media and “every government agency” in Indiana. However, that may duplicate, in part, what you have already done. You wrote me on February 16, 2008, that you were “very distraught at the response of the Indiana government agencies, including the Attorney General’s office, the Governor’s office and the two State Senator offices.”
Nonetheless, on June 25, 2008, you wrote that the Indiana Attorney General had, in fact, filed civil suit against Lau and Airleaf and that you had identified 450 victims. A copy of the Consent Judgment dated July 8, 2008 is attached in a .pdf file. This judgment lists 117 victims and a $317,881.96 loss. Could you send me a copy of the supplemental judgments that include the rest of your people? Thanks.
I look forward to seeing you in June.
Tim Morrison, United States Attorney
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I feel as if we are living in two different worlds. You stated that you'd be pleased to meet with me to receive written accounts from persons who lost money from Airleaf. I have spent the past 18 months working with Rob Simpson from the FBI providing him with case after case of criminal action. Rob called me a week ago on Friday telling me that he and the postal authority presented the case to your office, and your office turned us down for criminal charges stating that you didn't feel that the cases met the criminal statutes of Indiana. He stated he wanted to call me personally because he felt bad that this decision was made. He told me he believed we had a case. I have spent hundreds of hours making sure that our group has sent in information and documentation about their cases to the FBI and postal inspector's office. Please explain how, after all of this time, you don't seem to know about these cases.
If Rob Simpson has given me incorrect information about your decision, this needs to be addressed. If you are saying you didn't say you won't prosecute the case, then please tell me.
At that point, I will apologize to you and let our members and supporters know that you are reviewing the case. Since the FBI and postal authorities have collected all of the information including interviews with ex-employees, why can't you ask them for the information? The police captain of Martinsville, Jeff Buskirk, spent over six months meticulously putting together all of our files. Would you like me to ask him to send them to you as well?
I would prefer not to come to Indiana if I don't need to. It would be a costly trip for me. I would prefer not to have to spend endless more hours getting petitions from our victims and supporters. I would be willing to stop all action if you are telling me that you will review the cases that have been collected by your agencies and the Martinsville police. Somehow, there seems to be a large disconnect here, and I would like to know what it is.
As far as the AG's office, the fact that a civil judgment was handed down means nothing to me. It was symbolic only. The cases that were part of the judgment were a small number of the total number of authors because the AG's office felt they would file the judgment based on of a two-year cohort. That's why there are so many more complaints than what the AG has in the judgment. There is no money to be recovered from the owner as I knew there wouldn't be from the beginning. This is why criminal charges are so important to us. The AG's office should have put a stop to Airleaf months before they went out of business since there was an AVC order issued in May of 2007. When the first complaints started flowing into their office, that should have been cause enough to close Airleaf down. But there was nothing done, allowing Airleaf to continue stealing money from people until my campaign forced them to close by cutting off the cash flow.
There is another crook in your state, Brien Jones, of Jones Harvest Publishing in Bloomington, who picked up the slack where Airleaf left off. He was the Executive Vice President of Airleaf who started his own "publishing" company in January of 2007. He laughs to people that Indiana government doesn't do anything while he continues to rob people of thousands of dollars. I have over 70 complaints from his new victims. I am working hard to end his business the same way I did Airleaf's.
Complaints were sent to the federal authorities as early as August 2007 when they started investigating it. Something should have been done then--but nothing was.
So, as far as I see it, nothing was done to bring justice to the criminals who stole our money. I am sure you have been reading the letters sent to you by some of our victims. It's not that just money was lost. For some people, it was their life savings. I have loads of elderly and handicapped people whose lives were shattered from this criminal action. We want justice, and this is in your hands. Martinsville couldn't handle the case because they don't have the resources. The AG's office handed down a judgment that didn't help us--it was too late to claim anything. Therefore, we are seeking, as we have from the beginning, criminal charges against the owner, Carl Lau, for what he has done to us.
Please advise me of what you are willing to do. Also please advise me if the FBI gave me incorrect information because that would really be discouraging.
Thank you for your response.
Bonnie Kaye
April 18, 2009
Dear Ms. Kaye:
You e-mailed that “I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June to present you with petitions from our victims with their stories.” I willingly accepted a meeting upon my assumption that you planned to come to Indiana in June. Now you e-mail that “I would prefer not to come to Indiana if I don't need to. It would be a costly trip for me. I would prefer not to have to spend endless more hours getting petitions from our victims and supporters.” There is no obligation for you to come to Indiana. I am directing you to do nothing. I obviously misinterpreted “I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June.”
Few lawyers worth their salt are prepared to ignore new facts. When you e-mailed you were bringing “petitions from our victims with their stories,” I would certainly read those regardless of what was previously submitted to investigators. The e-mails your people sent me contain sparse facts about their situation. Fewer than half were listed on the civil judgment obtained by the Indiana Attorney General and most e-mails contained neither a loss figure nor “note stating your story” as you also requested. Most did follow your explicit e-mail directions to advise me they were victims of criminal fraud and express outrage. “.. (Y)ou are simply either lazy or a coward--or perhaps both” or “you are incompetent and impotent and negligent” were unfortunately representative. Many cited the “facts” that the FBI and the laws of Indiana were on their side.
These cited “facts” are not determinative, but they are wrong. For instance, Rob Simpson works on an FBI-sponsored task force in his capacity as an Indiana State Police detective. He is not a Special Agent of the FBI. “I received a phone call from our FBI agent who was investigating the case,” you e-mailed your people. “The FBI agent was on our side.” I assume that was a misunderstanding. There must have been a misunderstanding, too, when Mr. Simpson told you that my office “didn’t feel the cases met the criminal statutes of Indiana.” My office is without jurisdiction to enforce the criminal statutes of Indiana. We enforce federal criminal law.
The Indiana Attorney General’s civil judgment may be “symbolic” and “mean nothing” to you, as you e-mailed me, but you are one of only 117 persons included, while the majority of your people are not. Restitution orders in criminal cases, just as judgments in civil cases, are frequently not collectable. That is unfortunately true. However, they are not without value, since a defendant who inherits money, wins on a lottery ticket or at a state casino can have that money attached on this outstanding judgment. I have seen it happen. And if it does, fundamental fairness demands each name and loss amount appear on an existing judgment. You e-mailed that the AG filed on your behalf and the others based upon “a two-year cohort.” I am unfamiliar with that term. What does it mean?
I remain prepared to meet with you, but impose no duty on you to travel here or collect further information.
Tim Morrison
United States Attorney
And so, group members, this summer I will be visiting Indiana. Maybe I’ll even meet with U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison. At least I’ll make sure he receives our petitions to review the case.
For the next few weeks, I’ll be asking you to take a few moments to send emails to the leaders of Indiana to try to push them to move forward with our case. We cannot get discouraged because this is what people who should be doing their jobs are hoping for.
With love, hope, and determination,
Bonnie Kaye
Saturday, April 11, 2009
AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE 4/11/09
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
This is a short update to keep you posted on our activity. After sending out the update last week of our rejection by Timothy Morrison to consider Airleaf's action a "crime" in Indiana, 128 of you responded to date that you will sign a petition to request the reversal of that decision, and 53 of you sent me a notice that you emailed Mr. Morrison to voice your objection to his decision. If you haven't had time to respond to the petition, please drop me a note as soon as possible so I can add you to our list. If you haven't sent your message to Mr. Morrison, please take a moment to do so at USAINS.Webmaster@usdoj.gov, The more of us who stand up, the more powerful our case will be.
On Tuesday, I will send out a press release to the Indiana news media about our case. I will announce the launching of my new site www.IndianaWelcomesCrooks.com which you can now click into and read. I have also had our Airleaf Victims website with your stories redesigned to look more professional. You can view it at www.AirleafVictims.com. I want to make sure that our message is heard loud and clear.
Last Sunday, I sent a letter to the 83 state legislators in Indiana. In addition, I sent the letter to the Governor's office, the Senators and Congressmen. It stated:
Dear (Indiana Legislator),
My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of the Airleaf Victims group which can be seen at www.AirleafVictims.com. There are over 600 authors in our organization who were defrauded of over 2 million dollars by Airleaf Publishing in Martinsville, Indiana until we forced it to close through stopping its cash flow by exposing its fraudulence. In spite of our pleas for help to the agencies in your state which are there to protect people from consumer fraud, no action was taken to stop the company from operating until after the fact. Last May, your Attorney General handed down a half-million dollar judgment against the company from a cohort of 120 of our authors. The owner, Carl Lau, is declaring bankruptcy, so there will be no restitution. We pushed for retribution by requesting this man be punished for criminal charges. For 18 months, I worked with the FBI and Postal authorities presenting case after case of criminal action on Airleaf's part. On Friday, I was informed by the FBI that your U.S. Attorney, Timothy Morrison, has decided that our case doesn’t constitute “criminal action” in Indiana. My members, many of whom are elderly and disabled victims, are in shock.
The FBI and Postal authorities presented hard core evidence of criminal action by this company. Mr. Morrison has decided it’s not worth his time to pursue the case. This is unacceptable to our authors from this country and other countries who are victims of one of the largest predatory publishing scams in American history.
I am appealing to you as an elected official of Indiana to ask Mr. Morrison to reverse his decision. I will be coming to Indiana from my home in Philadelphia with other victims in June to present him with petitions from our group. As a result of the inaction of your state government, another company, Jones Harvest Publishing in Bloomington, IN, has set up a second publishing scam and has robbed hundreds of authors of their money. Brien Jones, the owner, was the Executive Vice President of Airleaf who left in 2007 to set up his own scam. You can see that site at www.JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com. This decision by Mr. Morrison only allows crooks like this to keep stealing money from honest and vulnerable people.
We plan to make this a national publicity campaign if we can’t find justice in your state. Please help us. Some of our authors are your constituents, and you owe it to them to fight against this injustice.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at Bonkaye@aol.com or call me at 215-288-6959.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Out of the 89 letters I sent, two state reps responded to date telling me that it is not the job of the state senators and representatives to handle this. I guess in Indiana, it isn't anyone's job.
I wrote a letter to my predatory publishing guru, Victoria Strauss, of Writer Beware! asking for her support in having other authors send petitions to express their support of our case. Victoria was very gracious, as always, in printing my letter in her blog yesterday. You can read it here:
Writer Beware Blogs!
I have had six authors respond already stating they will sign petitions to support us. Therefore, I will have a second petition for authors who are not part of our Airleaf group who want to support our cause. When I speak in Connecticut next month about predatory publishing at the CAPA University event, I will ask authors to sign the support petition.
I believe that if we stand up together, we can make a change in this wrongful decision. If we don't stand up, we will be known as "victims" in history. If we fight back, we will be remembered as "victors." We are a group of winners--and we will show this to the government of Indiana.
With love and hope,
Bonnie
This is a short update to keep you posted on our activity. After sending out the update last week of our rejection by Timothy Morrison to consider Airleaf's action a "crime" in Indiana, 128 of you responded to date that you will sign a petition to request the reversal of that decision, and 53 of you sent me a notice that you emailed Mr. Morrison to voice your objection to his decision. If you haven't had time to respond to the petition, please drop me a note as soon as possible so I can add you to our list. If you haven't sent your message to Mr. Morrison, please take a moment to do so at USAINS.Webmaster@usdoj.gov, The more of us who stand up, the more powerful our case will be.
On Tuesday, I will send out a press release to the Indiana news media about our case. I will announce the launching of my new site www.IndianaWelcomesCrooks.com which you can now click into and read. I have also had our Airleaf Victims website with your stories redesigned to look more professional. You can view it at www.AirleafVictims.com. I want to make sure that our message is heard loud and clear.
Last Sunday, I sent a letter to the 83 state legislators in Indiana. In addition, I sent the letter to the Governor's office, the Senators and Congressmen. It stated:
Dear (Indiana Legislator),
My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of the Airleaf Victims group which can be seen at www.AirleafVictims.com. There are over 600 authors in our organization who were defrauded of over 2 million dollars by Airleaf Publishing in Martinsville, Indiana until we forced it to close through stopping its cash flow by exposing its fraudulence. In spite of our pleas for help to the agencies in your state which are there to protect people from consumer fraud, no action was taken to stop the company from operating until after the fact. Last May, your Attorney General handed down a half-million dollar judgment against the company from a cohort of 120 of our authors. The owner, Carl Lau, is declaring bankruptcy, so there will be no restitution. We pushed for retribution by requesting this man be punished for criminal charges. For 18 months, I worked with the FBI and Postal authorities presenting case after case of criminal action on Airleaf's part. On Friday, I was informed by the FBI that your U.S. Attorney, Timothy Morrison, has decided that our case doesn’t constitute “criminal action” in Indiana. My members, many of whom are elderly and disabled victims, are in shock.
The FBI and Postal authorities presented hard core evidence of criminal action by this company. Mr. Morrison has decided it’s not worth his time to pursue the case. This is unacceptable to our authors from this country and other countries who are victims of one of the largest predatory publishing scams in American history.
I am appealing to you as an elected official of Indiana to ask Mr. Morrison to reverse his decision. I will be coming to Indiana from my home in Philadelphia with other victims in June to present him with petitions from our group. As a result of the inaction of your state government, another company, Jones Harvest Publishing in Bloomington, IN, has set up a second publishing scam and has robbed hundreds of authors of their money. Brien Jones, the owner, was the Executive Vice President of Airleaf who left in 2007 to set up his own scam. You can see that site at www.JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com. This decision by Mr. Morrison only allows crooks like this to keep stealing money from honest and vulnerable people.
We plan to make this a national publicity campaign if we can’t find justice in your state. Please help us. Some of our authors are your constituents, and you owe it to them to fight against this injustice.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at Bonkaye@aol.com or call me at 215-288-6959.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Out of the 89 letters I sent, two state reps responded to date telling me that it is not the job of the state senators and representatives to handle this. I guess in Indiana, it isn't anyone's job.
I wrote a letter to my predatory publishing guru, Victoria Strauss, of Writer Beware! asking for her support in having other authors send petitions to express their support of our case. Victoria was very gracious, as always, in printing my letter in her blog yesterday. You can read it here:
Writer Beware Blogs!
I have had six authors respond already stating they will sign petitions to support us. Therefore, I will have a second petition for authors who are not part of our Airleaf group who want to support our cause. When I speak in Connecticut next month about predatory publishing at the CAPA University event, I will ask authors to sign the support petition.
I believe that if we stand up together, we can make a change in this wrongful decision. If we don't stand up, we will be known as "victims" in history. If we fight back, we will be remembered as "victors." We are a group of winners--and we will show this to the government of Indiana.
With love and hope,
Bonnie
Saturday, April 4, 2009
INDIANA U.S. ATTORNEY TIMOTHY MORRISON'S REFUSAL TO BRING CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST AIRLEAF PUBLISHING
Dear Airleaf Victims,
I am writing this letter to you in great sadness, disgust, and anger. On Friday afternoon, I received a phone call from our FBI agent who was investigating our case. He felt obligated to call me personally since we have worked so much together over the past year and a half to compile a criminal case against Airleaf Publishing and Carl Lau, the owner. He told me that the U.S. Attorney’s office, headed by Timothy Morrison, has decided not to proceed with our case to bring criminal charges against Airleaf and its owner, Carl Lau. Naturally, I was in shock.
He explained that according to the criminal law statutes in Indiana, the U.S. Attorney’s office did not feel that our case constituted criminal acts. I’m glad I was sitting down when that call came in or else I may have fallen directly to the floor. I told him that this is UNACCEPTABLE. We can account for over 2 million dollars that has been stolen from us—and plenty more from other victims that never found their way to our group. I went over all the fraudulent acts—the never booked cruise that people paid for, the book reviews paid for while the books sat under Carl Lau’s desk, the authors’ royalties that were collected long during and long after Airleaf closed that went into Carl Lau’s private account, the trip to Germany that people paid for while Carl Lau sat in his office playing computer games and telling the staff to tell authors what a successful time he was having, the Lite Stone pretend movie site where authors were told their books were in production or pre-production as movies, and the list went on and on. The FBI agent was on our side. He investigated the case, has piles of files, interviews, computer records, and actual testimony from former employees attesting to the fraudulence. He and the Postal Inspector know we are right, but somehow, Timothy Morrison, the U.S. Attorney can’t equate these actions as criminal.
I told the FBI agent that I am in the process of collecting petitions so I can deliver them myself to Mr. Morrison in Indiana in June. Now, more than ever, we need to speak out and demand justice so we don’t have to remain victims anymore. I want to be able to change our name to the Airleaf Victors rather than the Airleaf Victims.
If you haven’t responded to my request to sign the petition yet, please email me and let me know that you are willing to do this. If you live in or around Indiana and you can go with me, please let me know. I intend to make this a media event to embarrass the government of Indiana into action.
My site www.IndianaWelcomesCrooks.com will be up by next week. I will make sure to send that to the media as well. I will notify you next week when it is up so you can view it.
This is a slap in the face to all hard-working authors who invested hard earned money in a dream that was nothing more than a money-making scheme and con game. It sends a message to the other predatory publishers like Jones Harvest that nothing will happen if they keep stealing money from people. For those of you who live outside the United States in countries including Canada, the UK, Australia, and Scotland, I send a big apology on behalf of our government that allows this fraudulence to go unpunished.
Here is a copy of the email I sent to Mr. Morrison yesterday:
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I was informed by the Indiana FBI today that you will not be following through with our case of fraud against Airleaf Publishing. I want you to know that I and the members of group find this totally unacceptable. I have provided the federal authorities with more than enough evidence proving criminal fraud. We have nearly 600members who are part of our group from the United States and other parts of the world who have been robbed of our money, hopes, dreams, materials, and dignity. There are hundreds of more victims of this company that haven't found their way to us yet. Just within our group, the money stolen is in excess of TWO MILLION DOLLARS. We want justice against Airleaf Publishing and Carl Lau, the owner who not only took our money while he was in business, but continued to steal our royalties after he closed his company for many months to come.
By allowing this crime to go unpunished, you are sending out a message to the other predatory publishers that continue stealing money from unsuspecting authors that it is okay to perpetrate fraud in Indiana without getting punished.
We are committed to finding justice against this fraudulence. I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June to present you with petitions from our victims with their stories. We will contact every government agency in your state asking them to intercede on our behalf. We will also contact your local media and the national media to bring attention to this injustice. We have been patiently waiting for a year and a half for justice, but now you have decided not to help us find it.
This is a true disgrace, Mr. Morrison.
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Organizer, Airleaf Victims
I would appreciate it if you could send an email to Mr. Morrison this week letting him know about your disgust in his refusal to help us. His email address is:
USAINS.Webmaster@usdoj.gov
Tell Mr. Morrison that you are a victim of criminal fraud. I have provided the Indiana government with a ton of information that proves our case. If what happens to us doesn’t constitute fraud in Indiana, then Indiana needs to change its laws. Please take a moment to send Mr. Morrison an email telling him that you do not agree with his decision and request a reversal of his decision. Let him know how violated you feel after being robbed by a company in his state and then feeling doubly victimized by his decision that it is not a crime.
Please send me a note if you do this so I can track how many people have sent a message. It can be a short note just expressing your outrage, or a note stating your story. The important thing is to let him know we want action, not dismissal in this case.
The government of Indiana is counting on our discouragement to make us feel defeated, hoping we will throw up our hands in surrender. They want us to walk away from this issue as some as you have told me to do. A handful of our authors told me to give up—“we can’t win. It’s not worth the fight.” But I don’t agree. I think about the hours, days, months, and years of anguish so many authors went through, and how their lives were forever changed by losing their hard earned savings to a greed and fraudulence. I think of the whole new group of over 70 victims of Brien Jones at Jones Harvest who is now laughing and telling people the government of Indiana doesn’t do anything while he continues to re-victimize many of our original Airleaf victims and a whole new group of unsuspecting authors who fell for his bait. This decision will give him the green light to keep hurting authors.
We need to stand up for ourselves and our dignity. If you have not sent back your response to being part of our petition campaign, please do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. To date, I have 72 responses. We need a lot more to make this a cause that won’t be forgotten. Please write to me at Bonkaye@aol.com to let me know you are willing to join our team of Airleaf Victims No More, so we can become Airleaf Victors.
I will have the petition ready by the end of the week and send it out to all of you who are on my list. You will be able to either email it back to me or send it back to me by mail.
Let’s not give up. Thank you for your support and words of encouragement.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed., Organizer
www.AirleafVictims.com
www.JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com
I am writing this letter to you in great sadness, disgust, and anger. On Friday afternoon, I received a phone call from our FBI agent who was investigating our case. He felt obligated to call me personally since we have worked so much together over the past year and a half to compile a criminal case against Airleaf Publishing and Carl Lau, the owner. He told me that the U.S. Attorney’s office, headed by Timothy Morrison, has decided not to proceed with our case to bring criminal charges against Airleaf and its owner, Carl Lau. Naturally, I was in shock.
He explained that according to the criminal law statutes in Indiana, the U.S. Attorney’s office did not feel that our case constituted criminal acts. I’m glad I was sitting down when that call came in or else I may have fallen directly to the floor. I told him that this is UNACCEPTABLE. We can account for over 2 million dollars that has been stolen from us—and plenty more from other victims that never found their way to our group. I went over all the fraudulent acts—the never booked cruise that people paid for, the book reviews paid for while the books sat under Carl Lau’s desk, the authors’ royalties that were collected long during and long after Airleaf closed that went into Carl Lau’s private account, the trip to Germany that people paid for while Carl Lau sat in his office playing computer games and telling the staff to tell authors what a successful time he was having, the Lite Stone pretend movie site where authors were told their books were in production or pre-production as movies, and the list went on and on. The FBI agent was on our side. He investigated the case, has piles of files, interviews, computer records, and actual testimony from former employees attesting to the fraudulence. He and the Postal Inspector know we are right, but somehow, Timothy Morrison, the U.S. Attorney can’t equate these actions as criminal.
I told the FBI agent that I am in the process of collecting petitions so I can deliver them myself to Mr. Morrison in Indiana in June. Now, more than ever, we need to speak out and demand justice so we don’t have to remain victims anymore. I want to be able to change our name to the Airleaf Victors rather than the Airleaf Victims.
If you haven’t responded to my request to sign the petition yet, please email me and let me know that you are willing to do this. If you live in or around Indiana and you can go with me, please let me know. I intend to make this a media event to embarrass the government of Indiana into action.
My site www.IndianaWelcomesCrooks.com will be up by next week. I will make sure to send that to the media as well. I will notify you next week when it is up so you can view it.
This is a slap in the face to all hard-working authors who invested hard earned money in a dream that was nothing more than a money-making scheme and con game. It sends a message to the other predatory publishers like Jones Harvest that nothing will happen if they keep stealing money from people. For those of you who live outside the United States in countries including Canada, the UK, Australia, and Scotland, I send a big apology on behalf of our government that allows this fraudulence to go unpunished.
Here is a copy of the email I sent to Mr. Morrison yesterday:
Dear Mr. Morrison,
I was informed by the Indiana FBI today that you will not be following through with our case of fraud against Airleaf Publishing. I want you to know that I and the members of group find this totally unacceptable. I have provided the federal authorities with more than enough evidence proving criminal fraud. We have nearly 600members who are part of our group from the United States and other parts of the world who have been robbed of our money, hopes, dreams, materials, and dignity. There are hundreds of more victims of this company that haven't found their way to us yet. Just within our group, the money stolen is in excess of TWO MILLION DOLLARS. We want justice against Airleaf Publishing and Carl Lau, the owner who not only took our money while he was in business, but continued to steal our royalties after he closed his company for many months to come.
By allowing this crime to go unpunished, you are sending out a message to the other predatory publishers that continue stealing money from unsuspecting authors that it is okay to perpetrate fraud in Indiana without getting punished.
We are committed to finding justice against this fraudulence. I will be coming to visit you in Indiana in June to present you with petitions from our victims with their stories. We will contact every government agency in your state asking them to intercede on our behalf. We will also contact your local media and the national media to bring attention to this injustice. We have been patiently waiting for a year and a half for justice, but now you have decided not to help us find it.
This is a true disgrace, Mr. Morrison.
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Organizer, Airleaf Victims
I would appreciate it if you could send an email to Mr. Morrison this week letting him know about your disgust in his refusal to help us. His email address is:
USAINS.Webmaster@usdoj.gov
Tell Mr. Morrison that you are a victim of criminal fraud. I have provided the Indiana government with a ton of information that proves our case. If what happens to us doesn’t constitute fraud in Indiana, then Indiana needs to change its laws. Please take a moment to send Mr. Morrison an email telling him that you do not agree with his decision and request a reversal of his decision. Let him know how violated you feel after being robbed by a company in his state and then feeling doubly victimized by his decision that it is not a crime.
Please send me a note if you do this so I can track how many people have sent a message. It can be a short note just expressing your outrage, or a note stating your story. The important thing is to let him know we want action, not dismissal in this case.
The government of Indiana is counting on our discouragement to make us feel defeated, hoping we will throw up our hands in surrender. They want us to walk away from this issue as some as you have told me to do. A handful of our authors told me to give up—“we can’t win. It’s not worth the fight.” But I don’t agree. I think about the hours, days, months, and years of anguish so many authors went through, and how their lives were forever changed by losing their hard earned savings to a greed and fraudulence. I think of the whole new group of over 70 victims of Brien Jones at Jones Harvest who is now laughing and telling people the government of Indiana doesn’t do anything while he continues to re-victimize many of our original Airleaf victims and a whole new group of unsuspecting authors who fell for his bait. This decision will give him the green light to keep hurting authors.
We need to stand up for ourselves and our dignity. If you have not sent back your response to being part of our petition campaign, please do so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. To date, I have 72 responses. We need a lot more to make this a cause that won’t be forgotten. Please write to me at Bonkaye@aol.com to let me know you are willing to join our team of Airleaf Victims No More, so we can become Airleaf Victors.
I will have the petition ready by the end of the week and send it out to all of you who are on my list. You will be able to either email it back to me or send it back to me by mail.
Let’s not give up. Thank you for your support and words of encouragement.
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed., Organizer
www.AirleafVictims.com
www.JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com
Saturday, March 28, 2009
AIRLEAF VICTIMS/JONES HARVEST VICTIMS UPDATE
Dear Airleaf Victims,
It has been a while since you’ve heard from me. That’s because I had nothing to tell you. Allow me to explain two issues.
When we began our campaign against Airleaf, we took action on two levels. We applied for civil charges with the Attorney General’s office for restitution of our money. We also filed complaints for criminal charges with the U.S. Attorney’s office for prosecution of criminal actions. In Indiana, those are the two government agencies responsible for each of the actions.
My requests to the U.S. Attorney in Indiana regarding the criminal charges against Carl Lau and Airleaf et. al., have not resulted in any determination as of yet whether they will press charges because the case is under “investigation” by the FBI and Postal authorities as it has been for a year-and-a-half. Quite frankly, I’m stumped. I provided these agencies with all the documentation to make the case, but it’s still being investigated. I am tired of waiting for a response with no communication from Timothy Morrison as of late, the Indiana U.S. Attorney, in spite of asking twice for a decision.
In my frustration, I sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney two weeks ago. This is what it stated:
March 11, 2009
Mr. Kenneth E. Melson, Director
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2242
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Mr. Melson:
My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of a group of over 600 people who are victims of a predatory publishing and publicity scam by a now out-of-business company, Airleaf Publishing, in Martinsville, Indiana owned by Carl Lau.
As a victim, in addition to being the organizer of the group, I have spent the past year and a half seeking justice for our very upset members by the Indiana U.S. Attorney’s office. The FBI and the US Postal Authorities have investigated this case for well over a year and a half. I have provided extensive documentation to prove that our case is one of fraudulence as opposed to “poor business practice.”
I was successful in getting this company closed by starting an intensive Internet campaign that shut off the cash flow of the company. At that time, I took two routes—civil charges and criminal charges. I had our authors send out complaint forms to the FBI and Postal Authorities of Indiana for criminal action, as well as the Attorney General of Indiana for civil charges. The Attorney General’s office handed down a judgment against the owner, Carl Lau, last spring, months after the company closed. Unfortunately, since he has no money left, we will not see any kind of restitution. However, we are still seeking retribution in the form of criminal charges so that con men don’t feel entitled to rob authors of thousands of dollars with false promises that will never come true.
From the information that I have been able to gather, Carl Lau stole in excess of two million dollars from unsuspecting authors who have now had their hopes, dreams, and money stolen away from them. How is it that one petty thief can go to jail, but a con man of this magnitude can go free? This makes no sense to any of us.
I have spent hundreds of hours compiling files for the FBI to make our case so that the U.S. Attorney of Indiana, Timothy Morrison, can file criminal charges against the criminal. I have had very little by way of communication in a positive way from Mr. Morrison who seems to just “blow us off.” I am writing to you as a last resort in trying to get us the help and justice we are seeking.
You can read our website at www.AirleafVictims.com. As a result of the inaction of the Indiana government, a second company, Jones Harvest Publishing, owned and operated by the former Executive Vice President of Airleaf, Brien Jones, started operating this scam all over again robbing people of thousands of dollars for fake publicity and publishing campaigns. You can see my site at www.JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com.
Mr. Melson, I know you are very busy, and I am only writing to you in desperation. We don’t know where to turn. Many of our victims are elderly people and disabled people who invested their life savings into this dream that became their nightmare. If action isn’t taken to punish people who do this, it sends up a red flag to other people with no conscience that this kind of fraudulence is not a punishable crime.
Please help us by asking Mr. Morrison to take action against the thieves of Indiana who are robbing people not only in this country, but in internationally as well. It certainly doesn’t make America look good when we allow this type of fraudulence to flourish. If you would like me to send you copies of my correspondence with Mr. Morrison, please let me know.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
I am still waiting for a response from his office. I understand he is busy with AIG, but we have our own personal money woes to contend with due to this fraudulence.
The next step I would like to take is this: I would like to know if you will help me by signing a petition that I will personally deliver in Indiana to the U.S. Attorney’s office with our stories. I will go with Sgt. Don Meyers, Indiana’s most decorated Vietnam War Veteran, as well as an Airleaf Victim, and any other author in the area who is willing to join me. I will call the press ahead of time to announce when I am going, and I will launch my new campaign and website “Indiana Welcomes Crooks” which I am in the process of designing. I’ll send you the link in the next few weeks so you can check it out. I am hoping by taking these measures, I will drum up media interest in our case.
Regardless of the fact that we were able to get the Attorney General’s office to bring a judgment against Carl Lau, we will see nothing. Carl Lau sold his house last year, and the money from Lau’s house went to the IRS for back taxes. He is in debt up the kazoo and supposedly claiming bankruptcy. But don’t feel sorry for him—he’s been collecting unemployment insurance this year. And he and his wife have moved in with his wife’s family. His wife has an excellent job, so they are not suffering, but a lot of us sure are.
If you are willing to help me with this petition campaign, please send me an email at Bonkaye@aol.com and let me know I can count on you. I’m willing to donate my time and money to go to Indiana on your behalf. All I’m asking you for is sign a statement that I will send to you requesting that the U.S. Attorney bring charges against Airleaf for crimes against our authors.
In the meantime, I am working with nearly 70 victims of Jones Harvest Publishing owned by Brien Jones. I have them filing reports to the Attorney General’s office in Indiana. When so many of you told me initially that Brien Jones was the real criminal at Airleaf, I couldn’t understand why. After all, he didn’t own the company. But of course I’ve learned the hard way that he was the one who came up with most of the fraudulent schemes and talked you out of your money as you kept telling me. He’s done this all over again on his own. Many of our victims have been re-victimized, and I will keep fighting on their behalf as well as his new victims who have found me due to my Google Advertising on the Jones Harvest page of Google. Feel free to check it out. We have to let the government of Indiana know that we will not tolerate their lack of action against predatory publishing fraud.
Three other items before I end.
1.Airleaf Victim Tom Barnes called me the other day and told me that if you have lost money with Airleaf, you can file it as a fraudulence loss on your income tax this year. Even if it happened two or three years ago, we didn’t know about the fraudulence until 2008. I took mine off my taxes last year. If you haven’t done that yet, please think about adding it to your return.
2.Keep in mind our Books of Excellence author’s co-op. Please check it out if you haven’t seen it lately at www.BooksOfExcellence.com. We have some wonderful authors, and books are selling and being promoted. We would be happy to have you join our group. Please email me if you would like further information.
3.I’ll be in Connecticut in May at the CAPA conference (Connecticut Authors and Publishing Association) as a guest speaker on Predatory Publishing discussing how we as victims stood up to fight and stop Airleaf. If any of you live in the area, I’d love to meet you. Please let me know if you’d like more information.
Thank you for your patience, support, and hopefully, willingness to keep our battle alive until we see justice. What happened to us is criminal—and criminals need to be punished.
Love,
Bonnie Kaye, M. Ed.
It has been a while since you’ve heard from me. That’s because I had nothing to tell you. Allow me to explain two issues.
When we began our campaign against Airleaf, we took action on two levels. We applied for civil charges with the Attorney General’s office for restitution of our money. We also filed complaints for criminal charges with the U.S. Attorney’s office for prosecution of criminal actions. In Indiana, those are the two government agencies responsible for each of the actions.
My requests to the U.S. Attorney in Indiana regarding the criminal charges against Carl Lau and Airleaf et. al., have not resulted in any determination as of yet whether they will press charges because the case is under “investigation” by the FBI and Postal authorities as it has been for a year-and-a-half. Quite frankly, I’m stumped. I provided these agencies with all the documentation to make the case, but it’s still being investigated. I am tired of waiting for a response with no communication from Timothy Morrison as of late, the Indiana U.S. Attorney, in spite of asking twice for a decision.
In my frustration, I sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney two weeks ago. This is what it stated:
March 11, 2009
Mr. Kenneth E. Melson, Director
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2242
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Mr. Melson:
My name is Bonnie Kaye. I am the organizer of a group of over 600 people who are victims of a predatory publishing and publicity scam by a now out-of-business company, Airleaf Publishing, in Martinsville, Indiana owned by Carl Lau.
As a victim, in addition to being the organizer of the group, I have spent the past year and a half seeking justice for our very upset members by the Indiana U.S. Attorney’s office. The FBI and the US Postal Authorities have investigated this case for well over a year and a half. I have provided extensive documentation to prove that our case is one of fraudulence as opposed to “poor business practice.”
I was successful in getting this company closed by starting an intensive Internet campaign that shut off the cash flow of the company. At that time, I took two routes—civil charges and criminal charges. I had our authors send out complaint forms to the FBI and Postal Authorities of Indiana for criminal action, as well as the Attorney General of Indiana for civil charges. The Attorney General’s office handed down a judgment against the owner, Carl Lau, last spring, months after the company closed. Unfortunately, since he has no money left, we will not see any kind of restitution. However, we are still seeking retribution in the form of criminal charges so that con men don’t feel entitled to rob authors of thousands of dollars with false promises that will never come true.
From the information that I have been able to gather, Carl Lau stole in excess of two million dollars from unsuspecting authors who have now had their hopes, dreams, and money stolen away from them. How is it that one petty thief can go to jail, but a con man of this magnitude can go free? This makes no sense to any of us.
I have spent hundreds of hours compiling files for the FBI to make our case so that the U.S. Attorney of Indiana, Timothy Morrison, can file criminal charges against the criminal. I have had very little by way of communication in a positive way from Mr. Morrison who seems to just “blow us off.” I am writing to you as a last resort in trying to get us the help and justice we are seeking.
You can read our website at www.AirleafVictims.com. As a result of the inaction of the Indiana government, a second company, Jones Harvest Publishing, owned and operated by the former Executive Vice President of Airleaf, Brien Jones, started operating this scam all over again robbing people of thousands of dollars for fake publicity and publishing campaigns. You can see my site at www.JonesHarvestFraudVictims.com.
Mr. Melson, I know you are very busy, and I am only writing to you in desperation. We don’t know where to turn. Many of our victims are elderly people and disabled people who invested their life savings into this dream that became their nightmare. If action isn’t taken to punish people who do this, it sends up a red flag to other people with no conscience that this kind of fraudulence is not a punishable crime.
Please help us by asking Mr. Morrison to take action against the thieves of Indiana who are robbing people not only in this country, but in internationally as well. It certainly doesn’t make America look good when we allow this type of fraudulence to flourish. If you would like me to send you copies of my correspondence with Mr. Morrison, please let me know.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
I am still waiting for a response from his office. I understand he is busy with AIG, but we have our own personal money woes to contend with due to this fraudulence.
The next step I would like to take is this: I would like to know if you will help me by signing a petition that I will personally deliver in Indiana to the U.S. Attorney’s office with our stories. I will go with Sgt. Don Meyers, Indiana’s most decorated Vietnam War Veteran, as well as an Airleaf Victim, and any other author in the area who is willing to join me. I will call the press ahead of time to announce when I am going, and I will launch my new campaign and website “Indiana Welcomes Crooks” which I am in the process of designing. I’ll send you the link in the next few weeks so you can check it out. I am hoping by taking these measures, I will drum up media interest in our case.
Regardless of the fact that we were able to get the Attorney General’s office to bring a judgment against Carl Lau, we will see nothing. Carl Lau sold his house last year, and the money from Lau’s house went to the IRS for back taxes. He is in debt up the kazoo and supposedly claiming bankruptcy. But don’t feel sorry for him—he’s been collecting unemployment insurance this year. And he and his wife have moved in with his wife’s family. His wife has an excellent job, so they are not suffering, but a lot of us sure are.
If you are willing to help me with this petition campaign, please send me an email at Bonkaye@aol.com and let me know I can count on you. I’m willing to donate my time and money to go to Indiana on your behalf. All I’m asking you for is sign a statement that I will send to you requesting that the U.S. Attorney bring charges against Airleaf for crimes against our authors.
In the meantime, I am working with nearly 70 victims of Jones Harvest Publishing owned by Brien Jones. I have them filing reports to the Attorney General’s office in Indiana. When so many of you told me initially that Brien Jones was the real criminal at Airleaf, I couldn’t understand why. After all, he didn’t own the company. But of course I’ve learned the hard way that he was the one who came up with most of the fraudulent schemes and talked you out of your money as you kept telling me. He’s done this all over again on his own. Many of our victims have been re-victimized, and I will keep fighting on their behalf as well as his new victims who have found me due to my Google Advertising on the Jones Harvest page of Google. Feel free to check it out. We have to let the government of Indiana know that we will not tolerate their lack of action against predatory publishing fraud.
Three other items before I end.
1.Airleaf Victim Tom Barnes called me the other day and told me that if you have lost money with Airleaf, you can file it as a fraudulence loss on your income tax this year. Even if it happened two or three years ago, we didn’t know about the fraudulence until 2008. I took mine off my taxes last year. If you haven’t done that yet, please think about adding it to your return.
2.Keep in mind our Books of Excellence author’s co-op. Please check it out if you haven’t seen it lately at www.BooksOfExcellence.com. We have some wonderful authors, and books are selling and being promoted. We would be happy to have you join our group. Please email me if you would like further information.
3.I’ll be in Connecticut in May at the CAPA conference (Connecticut Authors and Publishing Association) as a guest speaker on Predatory Publishing discussing how we as victims stood up to fight and stop Airleaf. If any of you live in the area, I’d love to meet you. Please let me know if you’d like more information.
Thank you for your patience, support, and hopefully, willingness to keep our battle alive until we see justice. What happened to us is criminal—and criminals need to be punished.
Love,
Bonnie Kaye, M. Ed.
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
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