CARL AND DEB LAU ARE LIVING THEIR DREAM!!!

Dear Airleaf Victims Friends,

It's been a while since I've been in touch with you because there was not much new to report. I wrote to you last year when I found that Carl Lau and his wife Debbie Lau were working for a real estate company in Florida selling homes. According to Carl's profile, he states:

I love living my dream.  My business is built around honesty, integrity, and ethics, and I work hard for my customers.

I found it so ironic that this couple could recreate themselves as respectable business people in Florida. On Lau's profile he continues:

 I have 25 years of corporate financial experience. I am detail oriented in helping you with your decisions, and I love real estate.

Well, Carl, you really can write your own fiction novel based on that lie!

Anyway, since I last revealed Carl's first dream job in Florida last year, he left the original company he and his wife worked for and found a new home at a company called Florida's Realty, LLC. I found this out when his former employer called to tell me how she had been "screwed" by them. I always find it an "ironic twist of fate" when people call and tell me, "You were right" after I've warned them they could also be "screwed" when they choose to ignore my information about working with a crook.

In Florida, both Carl and his wife "Deb" are realtors. So now that they are both living their dream on our misfortune, I contacted their new boss several months ago. After no response, I wrote him this letter a few days ago. Since he refused to respond to me, I am sharing this letter as I promised him with you and on my blog:

Dear Larry Maas,

I reached out to you once before with no response, but I wanted to give you one more chance before I take this to the public since I don't know you. I am writing to you at the request of our board of directors of Airleaf Victims. I am the organizer of the group. Our website is at www.AirleafVictims.com. We are a group of over 600 authors who were scammed out of substantial money by Carl Lau. There is a judgment against him by the State of Indiana for a small cohort of our group for nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

Now they have reinvented themselves after declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying us back the money the courts ordered. I am letting you know that our battle will continue. We have people who were left with severe health conditions including a heart attack after being robbed of their life savings by this fraudulent man. You can read my blog on the website which will document my weekly updates during our battle.

If you want to continue to employ the Lau's, that is your choice. Just be aware that I will be taking this to the media and the State Attorney's Office. I will be posting it on my blog so that people will know what is going on here.

If I don't hear from you within 48 hours, I will understand that you have no compassion for people who got screwed so badly--including me. However, I wonder how much faith your potential customers will have when they learn that two of your agents defrauded over 1,000 people out of nearly 2 million dollars, declared bankruptcy to avoid paying us back, was sued by Authorhouse for stealing their business, and other offenses that I won't go into here. How much faith do you think they'll have in your company when we tell the truth?

Best regards,

Bonnie Kaye 

Organizer

Airleaf Victims 

Now that 48 hours came and went with no response, I am carrying through with taking this to the next step of (1) informing you, (2) posting it on my Airleaf Victims blog, and (3) making a complaint to the Attorney General of Florida. I will also be notifying the government of Indiana who had placed the judgment against Lau to start with.

Some of you may wonder why I am pursuing this after seven years. When I think about the suffering of so many of our authors who lost so much, I feel the need for justice. I need to believe that when good people are hurt, those who hurt them should not be allowed to go unpunished and recreate themselves to hurt others based on lies and deception.

Some of our wonderful authors in this group are no longer with us. Others faced extreme financial suffering due to the fraudulence and deceit. My dear friend Frederick Martin del Campo who lost his home from had a stroke and is in horrible shape from the events that happened to him as a result of losing his life savings to Carl Lau's idea of a joke. For those who are gone or who can't keep up the fight, I will keep it up. Maybe someday we'll see justice.

If you would like to be removed from my mailing list, just let me know by hitting "Reply" and asking to be removed. If not, I will keep you updated.

By the way, if you would like to be on my weekly Books of Excellence radio show, please let me know. I would be happy to have you as a guest to promote your book.

Love, Bonnie :)

CARL LAU RECREATED IN FLORIDA

Airleaf Victims Update
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends, I know it's been a while since I last contacted you. That was when I shared with you the good news that Brien Jones was out of business sometime last year. I was ready to send a note to all of you at Christmas time saying that I'm closing up the Airleaf Victims case because I believed I had gone as far as I can go. Something stopped me from saying that final goodbye, and in fact, I renewed my annual fee for keeping www.Airleafvictims.com website for another year. I always feel you never know about where con-men will pop up next, and I wanted people to know about Carl Lau and Brien Jones.
Sure enough, last week, I received a confidential email informing me that Carl and Debbie (his wife) Lau were now selling real estate in Florida. At first, I thought that would be impossible. I did some research and found out it is absolutely true. Actually, when I found their information it made me ill because after robbing so many of us for so long, this is what they state in their profiles on the website: http://www.zillow.com/profile/Deb-and-Carl-Lau/ I bolded the line that I thought you would be shocked by most of all. Deb and Carl Lau
About Deb and Carl Lau Southwest Florida is paradise, and I love living my dream. My business is built around honesty, integrity, and ethics, and I work hard for my customers. I am a people person, I'm easy to get along with, and I understand the client's anxiety and need for receiving prompt, accurate and honest feedback from an agent. I really love working directly with people. I think it shows when I help a customer because I really care about their needs, and I want my customer to get the "best".
My schedule is centered around my customer's needs. I have 25 years of corporate financial experience. I am detail oriented in helping you with your decisions, and I love real estate. (anonymous) Realty is located in the southwest Cape area. We are small, but our size allows us to give you the quick response and attention that you need. All real estate companies have access to the same multiple listing service resources; it's the management and people interaction that make your transaction smooth, accurate, and a success! Call me for a private showing on any home in Cape Coral and Fort Myers, Florida.
Needless to say, I was sickened and appalled. I know this is one group of people I don't have to explain that to. So first I checked out the company where they are working. It is called the company he is working for.
The owner actually sounded very shocked and disbelieving. As she stated, "I think you have the wrong people. These people are so nice!"
I explained these were the right people--and they were very nice. That's how so many of our authors were taken for their money. She didn't seem very concerned about it because she never acknowledged my follow-up email to her. Next I called the Florida department of licensing of real estate agents in Orlando. I had been told during my first initial investigative calls that in order to be a real estate agent in Florida, you must get clearance and approval by a board of seven people. I tracked down the assistant director of the agency who was very nice and told me that the Carl and Debbie Lau passed the initial background check which includes a fingerprint check. She did assure me that if I could send her documentation of the judgment handed down by the government of Indiana against him, the board would review it. Of course no promises--other than a review. She did tell me if Carl and Deb Lau misrepresented any of their investigation, they could lose their agent license.
So now I come to you seven years after starting our battle to ask for your support. Sadly, some of our finest fighters have passed away in recent years. But I am hoping there are still some of you who would be willing to join me in this attempt to stop the insanity. I don't want us to feel like victims once again. When we put Airleaf/Jones Harvest out of business, we were victors. Now, the man who took our money, hopes, and dreams and used it to buy a plane and a boat and declared bankruptcy rather than pay us our money--is living his dream in Florida selling real estate. I am not looking for revenge--I am just looking for justice. Joining me may mean you sign a petition or letter with me. Please let me know if I can count on you. Love, Bonnie

Dear Airleaf/Jones Harvest Victims and Friends,

First, allow me to wish all of you a happy, healthy, and peaceful holiday. I wanted to share some important news with you as I continue to seek justice for our group.

1. Some of you have written to me over the years to tell me that your books were still listed on places like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I couldn’t understand that since Airleaf has been out of business since 2006. Of course, Amazon doesn’t feel the need to answer this question from anyone—including me. I’ve contacted their legal department in the past with no response. So when another author recently contacted me about the dilemma, I decided to check it out.

Here is what my research showed. Some of the books published by Airleaf are still listed on Amazon and other outlets as available for order. One such book posted on Amazon said that 3 of the Airleaf copies were still available. The author never republished after Airleaf. Out of curiosity, I ordered one copy and the author ordered one copy. Now one copy was listed as remaining on the Amazon site. We both received our copies from Amazon several days after the order was made. Now the question is this: Who gets the royalties from the sales? To the best of my knowledge, I believe that Carl Lau is getting the royalties.

Why? My publisher, Paul Rabinovitch from CCB Publishing, explained that publishers have contracts with printers, distributors, retailers, etc., including Amazon and/or one of their subsidiaries. Just because Airleaf is out of business doesn’t necessarily mean that the contract with Amazon or the other outlets like Barnes and Noble was ever broken with Carl Lau, as long as Airleaf’s accounts are in good standing with these companies.

Some of you sent me your concerns that Amazon is reprinting your book and selling it. I don’t believe this to be true. I think that any of the few copies that are listed as “available” are the copies Airleaf provided them that were stored in their inventory. Two of our authors worked on this experiment with me. Once we bought the few available copies on Amazon, no more were listed. In fact, at the suggestion of my publisher, Paul from CCB, I called Amazon on two different occasions trying to reorder eight copies of those specific books for a book club meeting. Amazon’s Customer Service tried their best to reorder the books, but by the end of their research, they told me that the books would not be available any time in the near future. They stated if they would become available, they would notify me. So it appears that the last of the Airleaf inventory is being sold off and then the books will be unavailable unless you republish them.

Even so, I am really trying to get a handle on this because something is wrong. Here’s what I am asking you to do if you published with Airleaf or Bookman, Airleaf’s previous name. Please go to Amazon.com and check whether or not you are able to buy a copy of your book. If you haven’t republished, check if Amazon has any copies available for purchase. Even if you have republished, check and see if the original Airleaf version is still listed and available for sale. Unless you notify Amazon that you want the Airleaf or Bookman version removed from their website, chances are it is still listed by both Airleaf and your new publisher. If any of your Airleaf or Bookman books are available through Amazon, please order one copy and see if it arrives. As soon as you get confirmation, please forward the message to me or email me when you receive the book so I can begin a paper trail to see if Airleaf books are still selling. If they are, someone is getting the royalties—and it is not you.

I don’t believe there are many Airleaf books left in stock, but even if there is one, the money should not be going to Carl Lau. I have asked a lawyer friend of mine to contact Amazon once I compile this information, and he has agreed to do that on our behalf. Hopefully we will finally be able to find out who is getting your royalties. Please write to me at Bonkaye@aol.com after you check your book and if it is still listed on Amazon. I’m hoping we can resolve this before the spring.

2. It really does bother me that crooks who stole so much money from us are able to keep going through life without any real accountability. For instance, Carl Lau destroyed the so many of our authors through his fraudulence, and yet he goes unpunished. In fact, he is working in a Finance Company in Indiana called Royal United Mortgage. A Finance Company—playing with people’s money. Can you believe it?

When I learned this information several months ago from one of Lau’s relatives who contacted me in disgust after reading my website, I sent a letter to his boss. This is what it said:

To: Craig.Royal@royalunitedmortgage.com

Dear Mr. Royal,
It recently came to my attention that you are employing Carl Lau, former owner and operator of Airleaf Publishing in Martinsville, Indiana. As the leader of over 600 members of our group, Airleaf Victims, who were defrauded in figures reaching nearly three million dollars in one of the largest publishing scams in this country, I find it disturbing that your organization that uses the word "Integrity" in your advertising would allow Mr. Lau to be part of its team.

In fact, I find it very frightening to think that you would have a man handling your mortgages in view of the attention that predatory lending has received in recent years. I would like to think that employees in this position actually did have "integrity."

Mr. Royal, please read my site at www.AirleafVictims.com. If you do a minimal amount of research, you will find the judgment from two years ago that the government of Indiana handed down on behalf of the claims of a small segment of our authors for over $325,000.00. Because of the immense number of victims, the government had to set a window to limit the claims, so less than 15% of those who requested a refund were part of the judgment. Sadly, none of us who were rewarded compensation by the Attorney General’s office received one penny because Mr. Lau declared bankruptcy to avoid paying us the money he took from us for fraudulent services and book royalties. Even after the judgment was handed down, Mr. Lau continued to receive royalties from our hard work and kept it for himself.

This also leads us to wonder if your organization did a basic background check of Mr. Lau. If you did, you would have found that he was in bankruptcy in addition to having a government judgment against him. If you wish, you can contact the Assistant Attorney General's office and ask for Tom Irons who spearheaded the case. After I hear back from you, I will notify him of Mr. Lau's employment. You can reach him at Tom.Irons@atg.in.gov in case you have any doubts.
I am surprised that a company that has "integrity" would allow a crook of this magnitude to work for it.

My organization would appreciate a response from you as to why your company thinks that a man who has robbed the most vulnerable of vulnerable--elderly, disabled, religious leaders, and poor people who invested every penny they saved for a dream that turned into a nightmare--should be trusted to work with other people, many who are in the same position as we were. I would to give you an opportunity to respond before making this public.

Sincerely,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
Organizer, Airleaf Victims
www.AirleafVictims.com

I did send the letter twice. And of course, I received no response. However, at least you can now know where Carl Lau is working. And if you’d like to speak to him directly, feel free to call him there. The phone number is: (317) 664-7700 x7941. I’m sure he’d be happy to hear from you. Or you can feel free to email the director of the company who hired him, Craig Royal, at: Craig.Royal@royalunitedmortgage.com. Maybe if Mr. Royal hears from enough of our members about his employee, he’ll do something about it.

3. How is it when con-men in this business like Brien Jones go out of business, he can still continue to cheat his authors? Unbelievable, isn’t it? Well, it seems like con men always find partners, especially in the state of Indiana where government views “fraudulence” as “bad business practices” rather than a crime.

Authors first were sent a letter by Brien Jones several weeks ago bemoaning his “hard luck” in the publishing industry. To special “friends,” he sent this letter, making each of them think they were getting some special personalized letter—which they weren’t. Everyone I know who had any contact with Jones has received this with the name and the book title being the only thing that is “personalized.” Here it goes:

Dear _________________,

Enclosed is the letter we sent to all of Jones Harvest Publishing authors and vendors. Unlike some of those folks you were always a friend and supporter, and you deserve an explanation as well as my advice on where to go from here.

Six months before we closed I sent a long letter explaining the huge challenges we faced selling books and asking for suggestions.

The short version is bookstores didn’t pay when they ordered our books. JHP had to pay to ship books with an invoice. That was after we paid to print the books. If a store ordered a copy of _________________, they paid nothing. But I had to pay to print and ship the book.

If the bookstore ever paid they sent a check of 50%, but didn’t send that check to us. They sent that check to Baker & Taylor. Later B&T would send us a check for 40%. That was the best case scenario. More often we just received the front cover (stripped off to prove the book was unsold) often over a year later. I didn’t receive any suggestions.

That was with a Jones Harvest Publishing book. Getting even that far with a book from Authorhouse, Infinity or Vantage Press was impossible. When I said Xlibris I heard ‘click.’ Yet even against those odds, I tried to sell __________________ and the rest every way possible—more ways than you ever heard about. As with 99% of our titles I failed. It’s hard. And if you ever try selling somebody else’s book (or even your own) to bookstores you’ll find it’s also unpleasant.

By 2010 I spent half my day listening to bookstores hang up on me and the other half listening to authors that paid $950 to publish (usually less than we spent on the print run) complain about lack of sales. I have to admit I don’t feel very bad about giving up on some of those clients.

I do feel bad about you. You were one of the few that even acknowledged our website was free of vanity publishing information or that we had a bookstore. Most of our clients never noticed. I kept on trying anyway. The in 2011Borders closed 275 stores. Limping along and hoping was no longer possible.

To be a success in the self-publishing industry I would have to change everything. To survive I would have to be like all the rest and focus on selling authors their own books. That’s when I made an important discovery. I don’t want to be a success in vanity publishing.

I wish I could suggest another publisher that’s selling books, has a bookstore or even a website designed for that purpose. There aren’t any. The only subsidy, self or print-on-demand publishing companies with any promotion services are the same ones we’ve all known for years. They’re now offering “publicity” and “promotions” at appalling prices.

However, in my own search for a publisher, I concluded the best choice for you is Accurance, a company I’ve known about for a long time. I sent my books to them because:
1. They aren’t going out of business. They’ve been around since 1999 and growing.
2. Amost all books they produce are for other publishing companies—you’ve heard of most of them. It’s likely the publisher you choose uses Accurance for their production work (editing, book covers, typesetting/formatting, and conversion to eBook). Therefore you can cut out the middle man which takes us to price.
3. JHP could not survive charging $950 to publish because we were never POD. We always did print runs. Yet Accurance offers everything (for publishers) for $899. This is possible because of volume. They actually have a program for authors left in a lurch, because their publisher closed. (It’s not just JHP, there are many more with others to follow.) They have agreed to publish our books for $850.
4. They also answer the phone, or call you back quickly. They answer emails usually within minutes, at most hours. Most of the other companies I called answered electronically and sent me to someone’s voicemail.

There are plenty of companies out there promising the moon for $999 (but calling you from overseas.) I wanted the whole package including Kindle and REAL BOOKS with no surprises. My recommendation is Accurance. THE JHP bookselling plan didn’t work. But I would feel much better knowing you are receiving real books with good pricing, integrity, and stability.

To your books as fast as possible and at wholesale prices call Bill Earle, Author Partner Project Manager at Accurance at 1-727-550-6258. I have already transferred files for my books to them and can do the same for you.

I hope you have no hard feelings. I’m not walking away with a boat or an airplane (or even our house) and I truly tried. I hope you keep writing and trying to.

Sincerely,
Brien Jones

Let me say I found this letter—well—hysterical and pathetic and somewhat sociopathic as Brien Jones truly is. It was filled with lies and gross exaggerations for sure. But I will discuss that in my next update in the near future. For now, this is a WARNING to anyone who actually might be foolish enough to get burned one more time by the master of con.

But first, let me share with you the follow up letter that most of you have received by now from Accurance, the only company that Brien Jones trusts which has “republished” his books about the scary pumpkin and the crooked Vanity Publisher based on his own life story.

Accurance’s Bill Earle sent this letter to the list of Jones authors:

Hello! I wanted to touch base and introduce myself, Bill Earle if Accurance, Inc., since I was mentioned in the letter you should have received from Brien Jones. We are happy to be able to step in and offer our years of expertise to you for your current book that was published and future books. We have been around a long time and we aren't going anywhere.

Right now, we are concentrating everything on the Jones authors who were published with Jones. Those ISBNs are dead now so those books are no longer for sale. Even if sales were poor in the past for whatever reason, you don't have a chance at even one now.

Our Jones Publishing Package, is fast, high quality, as affordable as is possible, and most importantly - complete. Right now, the book you had published with Jones is no longer valid. The ISBN from Jones for your book is a dead account. We are honored to be able to offer you the fastest way back to the market for just $849 as Brien's letter stated:

1. We will revise your cover and interior - and that means as many revisions as you want or as few as changing the "Published by"
2. set up a new publishing account with Lulu.com
3. purchase your new ISBN
4. upload your new files
5. order and ship a proof copy to you
6. purchase and set up your new GlobalReach distribution to the Ingram database of all titles for sale - fresh to the market with a new ISBN and a new look in some cases.

We will also purchase and ship to you 9 more copies of your book at the end of the process before we turn over your new POD publishing account to you to monitor future sales and always order as few or as many copies of your own book at cost. It also all comes with expanded free revision cycles and unlimited email and phone support.

This package is not available on our website for obvious reasons. To purchase now simply go to our Misc. Services web page at :
http://accurance.com/index.php?go=services&goto=author&gotogo=authmiscservice and add to cart 849 units - they will be billed to your credit card of PayPal at $1 per unit. As soon as the purchase (always completely guaranteed) is made you will receive an introductory email from me with everything you need to know. Then, you can sit back and let us get you back in the book selling business the best way in the world we know how, at a price only available to you.

I will of course get back to calling you back as well.

Thanks!

Bill Earle
your author partner
Accurance, Inc.
(727) 550-6268

With the directions from Bill Earle, I did go to the link in his letter which led me to the Accurance website page where you can purchase the 849 units for $849.00. But then I took a moment to explore the rest of the website which led me to the page called “Author Services.” It was quite interesting seeing the pricing for authors who weren’t getting the special Jones Harvest deal.

Here is the irony of the special “Jones Harvest” pack.
Here are the the prices for the non-Jones Harvest author services:

Publishing Set Up Package $249
For the author who has viable, print-ready PDF files who needs set up with a POD publisher for worldwide print distribution (includes ISBN & Proof Copy). Your files will be uploaded, your ISBN will be purchased, you will receive a proof copy for final approval, and be distributed on the worldwide database serving potential buyers at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and many others.

Book Cover Creation - $199
For the author who needs just the book cover (front/back/spin) designed. You will received a print-ready PDF cover file. Package includes three (3) revision cycles until your cover is perfect for you.

There is even this deluxe package:
The Whole Nine Yards Package - $799
Mechanical Editing/Interior Formatting/Custom Cover Design/Print Publishing/Distribution

Wow—editing your book and the rest of the whole nine yards. And here’s another great deal:

Ready-To-Sell Package & eCombo Package - $799
Interior Formatting/Custom Cover Design/Print Publishing/Distribution/eBook Conversion & Distribution

So let me see if I understand this. Accurance is getting the “viable, print-ready PDF files” from Brien Jones. According to their website, this is the Publishing Set-up Package they are offering for $249.00. If you decide to use them to redesign your book cover, the Book Cover Creation would cost $199.00. And that’s only if you want to have your cover redesigned. Otherwise, you can take off that charge. Okay—even if you want the book cover, that adds up to $448.00. Now, add in 9 additional copies at print cost—that’s approximately $36.00. So now we’re looking at less than $500.00 for the same services that Jones customers are charged $849.00. Hmmmm….

It gets even better. If you want the Ready-to-Sell Package & eCombo Package according to their website, this will cost $799.00. And that includes all the wonderful services of the Publishing Set-Up package, the Cover Design package, and the eBook package—all for less than the Jones Harvest Package. And even if you throw in the 9 extra books for $36.00, you’re still spending less than that special rate for the Jones Harvest package.

And guess what—if you take this route, you don’t have a publisher. Accurance isn’t a publisher—it’s a set-up company that brokers you out to companies like Lulu where you are your own publisher.

Anyway, even before I did the math when I first learned of this new alliance between Accurance and King Con, I wrote Bill Earle a note:

wearle@accurance.com
December 9, 2011

Dear Mr. Earle,
Since we haven't met before, I did want to let you know that if you have developed any type of positive reputation for your company, you should think about how it will be affected now that you are working with Brien Jones. In case you’re not aware, Mr. Jones is under criminal investigation by various government agencies for fraudulent practices against authors. Since it didn’t faze him about screwing hundreds of people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, I’m not quite sure why you would want your name tarnished by being associated with him, but that’s your decision.

Please be aware that when I send out my update to over 600 Airleaf Victims and over 100 Jones Harvest victims, I will be mentioning your connection. Don’t expect great things to happen for you or your company because of that. I would really reconsider your relationship with him because it will really be a losing one for you and your company.

Best regards,
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed.
www.Jonesharvestfraudvictims.com
www.Airleafvictims.com

To date, I have received no response. Please, do not allow yourselves to become a victim one more time. For some of you, it has happened more than once. Remember—anything associated with Brien Jones will take bring you to a dark place where you don’t want to go. Don’t fall into this pit hole again.

Well, you will be hearing from me soon again with updated news. We are not done yet. With your help, we will continue to be VICTORS and not VICTIMS!

I wish you all the happiest and healthiest of all New Years.
Love, Bonnie

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

AIRLEAF VICTIMS UPDATE JUNE 28, 2008

Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,

I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet nearly five hundred of you via email, telephone, mail, and in-person visits. I feel as if you are my extended family because we've shared so much together. Some of us will remain lifetime friends long after Airleaf is behind us.

It has been nearly a year since I started my campaign to stop the fraudulence at Airleaf. In this past year, together we have done what people said was impossible—namely put Airleaf out of business and have charges brought by the Indiana Attorney General's office all within this relatively short time period. I have no doubt that other charges will be brought on the criminal end even though things are not moving as quickly.

For the past 10 months, I have sent out my updates on a weekly basis to expose the fraudulence that went on at Airleaf as well as to give important information about republishing your work. Recently, I exposed similar Airleaf-type fraudulence going on at Jones Harvest Publishing. Brien Jones has sent out notes asking people why I am doing this to him. All I am doing is alerting people to the marketing fraud that Brien is repeating at his own company in the same contemptuous way he did at Airleaf.

I would like to tell you something of my past relationship with Brien. When I started my group of Airleaf Victims, a number of people believed and accused me of working with Brien Jones to start the group. They thought he was using me to get back at Airleaf and Carl Lau. Although Brien was very helpful in giving me information about Airleaf, as were other former employees, he was certainly not responsible for my actions. In fact, he was not in favor of them and discouraged me from starting the Airleaf Victims campaign. He still felt some sense of loyalty to Lau or perhaps it was fear of repercussions to him if Lau suspected Jones of working with me.

Many of you wrote to me in the early days when I started my campaign that Brien was the person you held responsible for the loss of your money. I tried to "redirect" your anger against Carl Lau because he was ultimately the person responsible for not providing the services and taking the money into the Airleaf bank account.

From our first conversation, Brien swore to me that he was going to be different than Airleaf. He only wanted to sell books. He said his goal was to travel from bookstore to bookstore asking them to take books because authors want their books in bookstores. In the beginning of his business, he told me that the Hollywood pitches were a waste of time and knocked Airleaf for doing that. He promised me that every promise he made to authors would be kept. HE WAS DIFFERENT THAN CARL LAU AND AIRLEAF. And guess what? I believed him. Because I believed him, I allowed him to use me to gather other authors for his business. That would have been fine if he was doing an honest job. But he wasn't—and he isn't. So many of our authors told me horror stories about Brien, and in time, it became impossible to overlook them. He had an excellent explanation for every accusation, but could so many people be wrong? Now I realize I was naïve and trusting even after being stung. So if it happened to you TWICE, know that you're not alone. But guess what? It won't happen to me ever again. I've learned to be smarter.

Since exposing the fraudulence of Jones Harvest three weeks ago, two people have written to me to tell me that they are happy with Brien Jones and Jones Harvest Publishing. I'm glad to hear that. But I've explained to these authors that there were people who were very happy with Airleaf as well; however, that didn't mean the majority of us weren't victims of predatory publishing. Brien makes promises in writing that he is not keeping nor does he have any intention of keeping. Even stamping that a book is has a copyright when there is no copyright is a blatant slap in the face of every author when that happens. Promising people fame when there is no fame to be had is repeating the same scam as Airleaf did. As so many of you have written to me over the past six months, you can no longer tell the difference between the Jones Harvest ads and the Airleaf ads. This is sickening for sure.

The lesson to be learned from our tragedy with Airleaf is not to make the same mistake twice—or in some of our cases, three times. And, if you made the mistake a second time, you can fix it. Make sure that you have a signed contract in hand from whomever your new publisher is. Make sure you get statements and payments as you were promised. Write down on your calendar the quarterly dates they are do. When you go to a publisher, have him put INTO writing what you can expect to make with the sale of your book. Seeing the profit margin may drive you to keep checking out other possible solutions. Do research on Google. Put in the name of the company and put Complaints about…. And see what comes up. You learn a whole lot that way. And then check with others who have used the company. Check with me! I'll research it for you and let you know what I find out. I have friends now in the predatory publishing world—thank you Victoria, Anne, and Dave! You are all guardian angels of our vulnerable and believing authors. Check out their Preditors and Editors and Writers Beware columns. Learn how to be a good detective before falling for promises that will be broken.

At this point, you will stop receiving the Airleaf Victims update on a weekly basis. I will send you all a blitz whenever there is news on the case. If I need help in getting results, I will write to all of you for your help. I am trying to refocus myself into positive action such as our Books of Excellence Author Co-op and exposing other predatory publishing to make sure victims have a platform.

If you need help in anything and want my help, don't hesitate to write to me. Otherwise, you'll hear from me on an informational basis only. I will let all of you know once our site for the authors' co-op is up and functioning. We will be very proud to accomplish this to show the world that our books will continue to be seen and read.

Incidentally, if you have the WE Entertainment channel on your cable (Women's Entertainment), you can see me in an episode of Secret Lives of Women being rebroadcast on July 1st at 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. You can also catch it on July 4th at 8 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. The episode is "Dirty Little Secrets of Suburban Housewives." It is certainly quite a shocking hour not for the faint of heart—or those under aged! I'm in the segment with the woman who has a gay husband. They interviewed me doing a counseling session with the woman. It's on the second part of the show.

Love to all of my victim fighters who helped make history happen. Better days are ahead.

With love and hope,

Bonnie

Airleaf Victims Update June 7, 2008

Airleaf Victims Update June 7, 2008
Dear Airleaf Victims and Friends,
Our numbers have now reached over 450 members. Welcome to the new members of our group.
We had a positive response to our Authors New Start Co-op group this week. So far, in our first week, we have 28 people ready to go. I will give this one more week in hopes of getting our targeted 50 members, but we can always add new members when people want to join who are part of our group.
Once again, the cost to join will be $50.00 for the first year, and $25.00 a year after that. For that money, you will get one book of your choice on the front page of the website and then a full page about you and your book or other books. If you need to make changes to the site such as adding books, there will be a minimal charge. In addition, members have to commit to buy five (5) books per year from other authors who are members of the co-op. These books can be used for gifts or for your own reading enjoyment.
Any additional money that comes in beyond the cost of the website design and web hosting will be used for advertising the website on Google and other search engines as well as sending out press releases to appropriate news sources.
If you have sent me your confirmation, you'll receive information from me in the next few days. If you still want to join this exciting new undertaking, drop me a note at Bonkaye@aol.com.

Déjà vu, Airleaf vu, Jones Harvest Publishing too!
Part of moving forward is learning from the mistakes of the past and not allowing ourselves to become victims again. It is with great sadness that I have to warn our members about another predatory publishing scam that has re-incarnated itself and replaced the fraudulence of Airleaf Publishing.
In the past six months, I personally have received nine different horror stories about Jones Harvest Publishing primarily from senior citizens who invested thousands of dollars into an Airleaf-type dream and in all but one case, after they invested and lost thousands of dollars at Airleaf. These people were sold promises—just like at Airleaf. Here is a typical sales pitch (from one of the numerous Jones Harvest websites listed below) that one author sent me from the package she paid $5,000.00 for over a year ago:
(I am substituting the book title and author name to protect the innocent)
Bright Tomorrow should make you a celebrity!
Dear Joan C.,
Has your publisher or publicist ever even read Bright Tomorrow? Or are you and your book known by an account or book number?
There are hundreds of vanity publishing, publicity and literary agencies across the nation—some charging ten to twenty thousand dollars—and all of them waiting for the thousands of authors that write new manuscripts every year.
These companies will publish or just print overpriced books, and attempt to provide royalty-paying publishing deals, or write press releases and promotions to try to get a review written…all of this is done by email (SPAM), of course, if that.
Author Celebrity Associates is different. We make promises and keep them. WE WILL READ YOUR BOOK. We will find out what makes it special and how best to present it. If you choose, we will publish or republish your book at no extra charge.
We want Bright Tomorrow to make you a celebrity. You deserve it. We also want to make this very easy for you. All we need from you is your book or manuscript—whatever way is most convenient. With that, we make the following commitments to you:
• WE WILL READ YOUR BOOK IMMEDIATELY
• We will publish or republish your book in 60 days or less. (Optional, but no charge)
• We will pay you 100% of the profits from the book sales until you have earned back our fee.
• We will feature a picture of you on the home page of www.Authorcelebrity.com
• When a reader clicks on your name or picture, they will see your book(s) and information.
• We will place your book for sale on 10 websites including amazon.com
• We will call every newspaper, magazine, and radio station in your hometown and report.
• We will guarantee one television appearance and provide you with a DVD version.
• We will guarantee 3 separate AM or FM interviews in major metropolitan markets.
• We will guarantee a fourth interview on nationally syndicated AM/FM radio show.
• We will submit your book to a film producer for review and recommendations.
We will not be attempting to make these things happen. Each of these commitments is guaranteed. We won't stop there either; our plan is to do much, much more. We will also continue to publicize and sell your book as long as you let us, (or until you get a better offer) at no extra charge.
We will not be satisfied until we place Bright Tomorrow in bookstores everywhere and (name) is a celebrity. This program has a one-time fee of $7500. There are no further charges of any kind.
Sincerely,
Brien Jones, President
P.S. In your case, the price is $5,000. That is my way of apologizing for the past misfortunes AND showing you what we can accomplish at cost. Please keep this offer confidential. All but a very few authors must pay full price.
Wow—this is AIRLEAF all over again. The authors who have become Jones Harvest victims all have the same story about broken promises including time delays, failure to see galleys, numerous errors in the proofs, virtually no sales, lack of coordination of promises, and disrespect by some of the staff. When the first set of victims came to me in November, I told them to request their money back as I did all of the future ones who wrote to me. Some of these new victims had their money returned after they wrote Jones Harvest a letter threatening to report the company to the FBI and Attorney General. However, there are other victims whom I have recently learned about who have not had their money returned. And I can bet that there are other victims who don't know to come to me for help. Interestingly, most of these victims who contacted me are 70 years or older and vulnerable.
When Brien Jones started his own business in January of 2007, he made claims that he was going to be different than Airleaf. He left Airleaf because of the broken promises that were made to authors. As he stated in a letter to me dated January 30, 2007, "Carl and I had different opinions on how to use Airleaf's resources. I did my best to keep authors from being dissatisfied with our services. In your case I failed and I apologize."
I should have known there was a problem from that letter because I never worked with Brien Jones or even knew who he was. I only learned about him after he left and sent me an introductory letter like many others received. I took the bait because at that point, I knew something was wrong at Airleaf since my money wasn't coming through.
In my early conversations with Brien, he was clear that he had one goal and one goal only—selling books to bookstores. He was totally against the Hollywood trips, the book fairs, and other Airleaf plots because that's not how to sell books. He sounded legit to me, and not knowing differently except from Airleaf making some snide comments about his leaving, I had no reason to doubt him.
As the months went on and I was really disgusted with Airleaf, Brien offered to print my book for free in the summer of 2007 if I would be on his website. I was not opposed to that at all since I had reached the end of my rope with Airleaf. But as I became more involved with the Airleaf Victims group I started in August 2007,(which incidentally was NOT a plot with Brien as Airleaf kept suggesting) and started to read complaint after complaint about Brien Jones, I started to wonder why so many people were holding him responsible for their losses. People were looking for vengeance against him more than Carl Lau. I tried explaining that Brien had nothing to do with the money—that was Carl Lau. But people were adamant—Jones was guilty. They didn't accuse him of keeping the money, but rather of taking their money for packages that were never delivered.
I wrote those authors back saying that we need to target Carl Lau since he was the owner of Airleaf and ultimately the one responsible for not delivering what was paid for and keeping our money to enhance his lifestyle. He had visions of grandeur of becoming a famous Hollywood figure in the movies. His ego allowed him to be taken by the likes of Al Smith and Litestone Entertainment, a crooked "production" company that collaborated to make a number of you believe that your books were being turned into films by highlighting them on their now defunct website. Lau opened up his "Allen Agency" in California to sign movie contracts with authors. The whole thing is beyond bizarre and actually a story worthy of a real Hollywood movie.
I confronted Brien on the complaints coming in, but his answer was always the same. He claimed he sold services—he had no idea the services weren't being delivered. When he learned about it, he left. I would also call him on the complaints about misleading people, but the answer was the same. He was just as salesman. Somehow, Executive Vice President seems like more than a salesman to me. But Brien kept stating he was reforming from whatever sins he participated in while at Airleaf, and people should give him a chance. He even published some of the authors' books for free to show good faith.
But moving forward, I started to see that Brien was doing things in the same way that Airleaf did. I guess Brien realized that just publishing books and selling them wasn't going to make him money. First it was sending media blitzes for $450.00. Then it was going on book tours for $750.00. And of course, he was now going to take your book to Hollywood and pitch it to the movie directors.
If you look on the Jones Harvest website, you will see a whole bunch of other websites that he sponsors including: Author Celebrity Associates, Starred Review, AuthorSoldier (New!), Perfect Heart Publishing, Great Concept Books, Bookwheat, Bargain Book Basement, and Chosen Few. Each concept lures people in through a different door, but all roads end up at the same place.
Also, at the bottom of the shopping list is My Author Profile. According to the website, you can have yourself featured on there for $499.00. Yikes! You can have your own website designed and hosted for less than $100.00 and not have to share it with a bunch of others who will only be viewed by Jones Harvest authors and potential Jones Harvest authors.
Another note of interest: Part of the hook is promising reviews to customers. In a standard letter, it stated:
Also enclosed is a review we've received after sending it to a professional reviewer. We are our reviewers to be honest and to offer a clear perspective of what other readers could expect. As such, we really can't do anything about what it says, that's kind of the nature of the reviews. The reviewers are professionals so they are generally quite respectful and view your work as having an audience, even if it's not every audience.
People pay Jones Harvest to get their books reviewed. I read the review. It was signed by Tim, Brien's former phone receptionist and college nephew. His title under his name was "Media Researcher and Educator, T&R Reviews." The T&R stands for Tim and Rosa, Tim's wife. That's really a credible "professional" source to pay money for, isn't it? Next it will be the scary pumpkin head on his logo or possibly the wilted hay stalk writing the reviews.
Jones Harvest has gone from the original promise of only selling books to bookstores to:
National Blitz - $1850
We will feature your book on the HOME PAGE on our websites, www.jonesharvest.com and www.bookwheat.com, usually the same day you start! That means that any reader or bookstore owner that sees those websites sees your cover.
We will also read your book and write a comprehensive review. This review will then be featured on our unique website www.starredreview.com. We will also submit the review to 20 websites.
We will then write a custom, full-color, one-page promotion for your book. We will send it to you for your approval. You can make whatever corrections you want, at no additional charge. We will then mail it to 1000 bookstores in any markets you choose with an invitation to buy your books and/ or set up book signings. We will follow-up on all responses by telephone or whatever is necessary to place your book or generate a book-signing.
We will also write an AP style press release about your book and submit it to 100 newspapers and magazines. Before we mail it, we will send it to you for approval--again you can make changes at no additional charge.
Most importantly we also assign a telemarketer to you not only to answer responses but to also make outbound calls to newspapers, magazines, media and bookstores in the markets of your choice.
And now he's progressed to a super, duper, deluxe package of the secret price of $5,000.00 reduced from $7,500.00 so you can be a guest on vanity radio with Ian Moore and Stu Taylor, Brien's friends that almost no one listens to. But please keep that information "confidential" because only a few lucky people are getting that special price and we wouldn't want to let the word out!
Bottom line—there's a saying: Hit me once, shame on you. Hit me twice, shame on me.
So far, I haven't seen any of the Jones Harvest customers on television as some have been promised. And I certainly don't see any celebrities in the making. I have to wonder how I ended up on the Jones Harvest Celebrity Authors MySpace account with all of my books since I'm not a Jones Harvest Celebrity. Oh well, maybe Brien will update his site.
My bottom line is that predatory publishing must be stopped at every level. It's doubly insulting that the man who scammed at Airleaf is still pulling the same scam at his own company. It's time to put a stop to the illegal taking of authors' money. If you think you are a victim of Jones Harvest, please contact me and I will be there to guide you into your new membership group!
With love and hope,
Bonnie Kaye