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 Victoria Strauss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Victoria Strauss. Show all posts
Sunday, August 9, 2009
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
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
HORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD
Hooray for Hollywood
Well, Hollywood is revving up for the Indiana Jones family. They are going to Hollywood one more time to give vulnerable authors false hopes that a blockbuster movie could be made from one of their books if they are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars. Usually on these trips, they pack up the family as you can see on the website under the ‘Hollywood” button. It’s sort of like the Clampetts do Hollywood. There’s Brien and Brandy, Brien’s mom, cousin, and daughter. Well, at least it’s a family affair, although I hesitate in using the term “affair” loosely when I speak of Brien and Hollywood.
Anyway, this year’s offer is different than last year’s. Last year, the letter started with “Hollywood For Real.” It stated that “no one is making a movie out of one of our books—not yet. However, we have made three trips to Hollywood and we are closer than any other self publisher has ever been.” Now that’s really remarkable, I must say. I say that because it is now a year later and they are still no closer now than they were a year ago to getting anyone’s book turned into a movie. Even though I was assured by the author of “Rock with Rodney and Party with Perky” that Brien Jones had found four producers interested in her movies, so far, not one taker. Perhaps that’s why the “revised version” of the book has been “under production” for the past five months on his website because it’s now been extended to add a new concept on the cover: Bush’s anti-environmental report. When the author told me about the four productions companies that Jones had interested last summer, I checked them on the Internet and didn’t have any luck in finding them. Me of little faith, right? So then I called the man who is the organizer of the event and asked him if those companies attended, and he said he never heard of them either. When I reported the findings back to the author in hopes that she would wake up to the scam, she blasted me by posting on Brien’s blog that she spoke to the companies herself. That was different than her original story of telling me that Brien Jones gave her the name of the companies. But you know how it goes in Hollywood—fiction is always a big hit.
In last year’s offer, authors were promised that they would have their book, as well as their picture, featured on a site called “booktopictures.com.” When I checked out that website, it didn’t exist; however, it did redirect me to a site called “bootypictures.com.” All of this was available for “just $350.00.” But there was so much more! For a mere $500.00 additional dollars, they were willing to submit your book to one of two Hollywood producers and provide you with a resume and contact information for both executives. I think those of us who survived the Airleaf scandal will remember the kinds of producers the books were submitted to. They ranged from companies like Litestone Entertainment headed by Al Smith which lied about producing 30 books into movies, including his trailer that never became a book “Jessie’s Girl” to a company called Cinemagic which magically disappeared back to Japan. Ask me if I believe that there are not hundreds of scam artist producers waiting in Hollywood for vulnerable authors to shell out money. I’ve already spoken to half a dozen of them while fighting for our author victims. Anyway, that deal must have gone sour because it’s not even being offered this year.
And now Jones Harvest is offering to turn authors’ books into screenplays for free. One of my Airleaf author victims said Brien called her and offered to turn her book into a screenplay for free. This way it might sell better to the film people.
Remarkably, hundreds of emails went out to our Airleaf victims this past week from Jones Harvest offering to sell their books for free. In this letter, Jones states:
No charge, no obligation. No strings attached. I'll put the book on our websites today and even make a few calls. If you send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)
All you have to do is send me a copy or copies of your book or email me the cover. I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.
http://www.myauthorspace.com/
http://www.jonesharvest.com/
http://www.starredreview.com/
http://www.authorgifts.com/
http://www.bookwheat.com/
http://www.myauthorprofile.com/
http://www.brienjones.com/
He did manage to leave out some of his other untraveled sites like Great Concept Books, Bargain Basement Books (doesn’t that sound uplifting?), Author Soldier, and his two Christian sites, Perfect Heart and Chosen Few. I keep reminding people that the only one who views those sites is me—trying to reach unsuspecting authors of the outrageous scam they are part of for thousands of dollars.
This short statement in itself was a lie. Brien was trying to put a two-year wedge between his leaving Airleaf and the close of Airleaf. Jones left in the beginning of 2007, and Airleaf closed 11 months later in December of 2007. Actually it was the same year. But that’s Brien Jones—trying to mislead the public again.
I sent out a email blast to my list of over 500 Airleaf victims warning them about working with the King of Con. To say the Brien Jones doesn’t do anything for free is truly an understatement. Brien Jones doesn’t do much for people who pay him thousands of dollars. Look at all the authors that paid him money to be featured in a color catalogue to be given out at the book fairs. There was no catalogue. And when they asked him back for their money, he told them that he doesn’t have money. And why doesn’t he have money? Not because he can’t keep fooling the same victims who were taken once or twice because they realize that they are donating to the Jones family charity and want to redirect their contributions. Not because he screwed so many printers that they won’t print for him anymore. Not because his production and sales crew quit because of his fraudulence. Not because people don’t get their books after waiting for a year or two or have to send back galley after galley. No—he’s broke because of Bonnie Kaye. He can’t afford to publish his books but he can afford to pay for a website called “Bonnie Kaye Lies” where he puts his blog letters of support from five or six authors on there along with his own commentaries libeling me.
But what he forgets is that I am doing this work out of a mission to protect our authors who put their money, hopes, and dreams into a con game, not because I make any money. I have never accepted a dime from an author even though many have offered to support my efforts. He can’t hurt me. I don’t offer anything but the truth and help to authors. On the other hand, I am hurting him by telling the truth. This is why I now have 63 verified complaints about the tens of thousands of dollars that authors have lost and will never see again. You see, in the end, the truth speaks for itself. When authors receive royalty checks once a year for $1.35 or $6.25 after investing so much money, they know that what I speak is the truth. It doesn’t matter how many of the Jones Harvest websites these authors are featured on—no one is looking except me as I mentioned earlier.
Lee Goldberg, the renowned author and columnist, stated in a blog last week written by Victoria Strauss, my predatory publishing guru, about the Hollywood scam that his gardener has more contacts with Hollywood executives than Brien Jones because at least he mows the lawns for some of them. If you want to shell out money, maybe we can ask the gardener to drop off your book while he’s at one of these jobs. He is actually closer to them than the Jones Harvest family will ever be.
Well, Hollywood is revving up for the Indiana Jones family. They are going to Hollywood one more time to give vulnerable authors false hopes that a blockbuster movie could be made from one of their books if they are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars. Usually on these trips, they pack up the family as you can see on the website under the ‘Hollywood” button. It’s sort of like the Clampetts do Hollywood. There’s Brien and Brandy, Brien’s mom, cousin, and daughter. Well, at least it’s a family affair, although I hesitate in using the term “affair” loosely when I speak of Brien and Hollywood.
Anyway, this year’s offer is different than last year’s. Last year, the letter started with “Hollywood For Real.” It stated that “no one is making a movie out of one of our books—not yet. However, we have made three trips to Hollywood and we are closer than any other self publisher has ever been.” Now that’s really remarkable, I must say. I say that because it is now a year later and they are still no closer now than they were a year ago to getting anyone’s book turned into a movie. Even though I was assured by the author of “Rock with Rodney and Party with Perky” that Brien Jones had found four producers interested in her movies, so far, not one taker. Perhaps that’s why the “revised version” of the book has been “under production” for the past five months on his website because it’s now been extended to add a new concept on the cover: Bush’s anti-environmental report. When the author told me about the four productions companies that Jones had interested last summer, I checked them on the Internet and didn’t have any luck in finding them. Me of little faith, right? So then I called the man who is the organizer of the event and asked him if those companies attended, and he said he never heard of them either. When I reported the findings back to the author in hopes that she would wake up to the scam, she blasted me by posting on Brien’s blog that she spoke to the companies herself. That was different than her original story of telling me that Brien Jones gave her the name of the companies. But you know how it goes in Hollywood—fiction is always a big hit.
In last year’s offer, authors were promised that they would have their book, as well as their picture, featured on a site called “booktopictures.com.” When I checked out that website, it didn’t exist; however, it did redirect me to a site called “bootypictures.com.” All of this was available for “just $350.00.” But there was so much more! For a mere $500.00 additional dollars, they were willing to submit your book to one of two Hollywood producers and provide you with a resume and contact information for both executives. I think those of us who survived the Airleaf scandal will remember the kinds of producers the books were submitted to. They ranged from companies like Litestone Entertainment headed by Al Smith which lied about producing 30 books into movies, including his trailer that never became a book “Jessie’s Girl” to a company called Cinemagic which magically disappeared back to Japan. Ask me if I believe that there are not hundreds of scam artist producers waiting in Hollywood for vulnerable authors to shell out money. I’ve already spoken to half a dozen of them while fighting for our author victims. Anyway, that deal must have gone sour because it’s not even being offered this year.
And now Jones Harvest is offering to turn authors’ books into screenplays for free. One of my Airleaf author victims said Brien called her and offered to turn her book into a screenplay for free. This way it might sell better to the film people.
Remarkably, hundreds of emails went out to our Airleaf victims this past week from Jones Harvest offering to sell their books for free. In this letter, Jones states:
No charge, no obligation. No strings attached. I'll put the book on our websites today and even make a few calls. If you send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)
All you have to do is send me a copy or copies of your book or email me the cover. I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.
http://www.myauthorspace.com/
http://www.jonesharvest.com/
http://www.starredreview.com/
http://www.authorgifts.com/
http://www.bookwheat.com/
http://www.myauthorprofile.com/
http://www.brienjones.com/
He did manage to leave out some of his other untraveled sites like Great Concept Books, Bargain Basement Books (doesn’t that sound uplifting?), Author Soldier, and his two Christian sites, Perfect Heart and Chosen Few. I keep reminding people that the only one who views those sites is me—trying to reach unsuspecting authors of the outrageous scam they are part of for thousands of dollars.
This short statement in itself was a lie. Brien was trying to put a two-year wedge between his leaving Airleaf and the close of Airleaf. Jones left in the beginning of 2007, and Airleaf closed 11 months later in December of 2007. Actually it was the same year. But that’s Brien Jones—trying to mislead the public again.
I sent out a email blast to my list of over 500 Airleaf victims warning them about working with the King of Con. To say the Brien Jones doesn’t do anything for free is truly an understatement. Brien Jones doesn’t do much for people who pay him thousands of dollars. Look at all the authors that paid him money to be featured in a color catalogue to be given out at the book fairs. There was no catalogue. And when they asked him back for their money, he told them that he doesn’t have money. And why doesn’t he have money? Not because he can’t keep fooling the same victims who were taken once or twice because they realize that they are donating to the Jones family charity and want to redirect their contributions. Not because he screwed so many printers that they won’t print for him anymore. Not because his production and sales crew quit because of his fraudulence. Not because people don’t get their books after waiting for a year or two or have to send back galley after galley. No—he’s broke because of Bonnie Kaye. He can’t afford to publish his books but he can afford to pay for a website called “Bonnie Kaye Lies” where he puts his blog letters of support from five or six authors on there along with his own commentaries libeling me.
But what he forgets is that I am doing this work out of a mission to protect our authors who put their money, hopes, and dreams into a con game, not because I make any money. I have never accepted a dime from an author even though many have offered to support my efforts. He can’t hurt me. I don’t offer anything but the truth and help to authors. On the other hand, I am hurting him by telling the truth. This is why I now have 63 verified complaints about the tens of thousands of dollars that authors have lost and will never see again. You see, in the end, the truth speaks for itself. When authors receive royalty checks once a year for $1.35 or $6.25 after investing so much money, they know that what I speak is the truth. It doesn’t matter how many of the Jones Harvest websites these authors are featured on—no one is looking except me as I mentioned earlier.
Lee Goldberg, the renowned author and columnist, stated in a blog last week written by Victoria Strauss, my predatory publishing guru, about the Hollywood scam that his gardener has more contacts with Hollywood executives than Brien Jones because at least he mows the lawns for some of them. If you want to shell out money, maybe we can ask the gardener to drop off your book while he’s at one of these jobs. He is actually closer to them than the Jones Harvest family will ever be.
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