AIRLEAF PUBLISHING SCAM

AIRLEAF PUBLISHING SCAM


As of December 21, 2007 over 600 authors who done business with Airleaf-formerly Bookman- Publishing operating out of Indiana, have been defrauded by them for over $2,000,000.00 (two million dollars). There are possibly an additional 2,000 victims who fallen victim to their shenanigans. Some had taken aggressive action with the Martinsville Indiana police, the Indiana Attorney General's office, the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspector, and the Indiana US Attorney to bring civil and criminal action against Airleaf seeking restitution and retribution. They made great strides in efforts to get restitution, which resulted in the filing of civil charges by the Attorney General's office in May 2008, but there was no restitution due to the founder and owner, Carl Lau, being broke and unable to pay the victims of his operation any money. Unfortunately the U.S. Attorney of Indiana, Timothy Morrison, had decided not to press criminal charges as of April 3, 2009. However, the defrauded authors would keep fighting until they'd find the justice they were seeking. Bonnie Kaye, an author herself and psychologist for straight wives for gay husbands, founded a victim's group to fight the apparent intransigence of the Indiana law-enforcers. If one came forward as an author victim, she welcomed them to join her group in their collective efforts to find justice and stop the owner of Airleaf, Carl Lau, and others like him, from ever cheating authors again.

The fraudulence and criminal activities of Airleaf is have gone on record with the Indiana Justice system as well as federal investigators. They had uncovered some of the illegality being perpetrated through victims group's own author investigations and by candid confessions by former employees who in ''good conscience'' could no longer participate in the fraud.
Here are just a few examples:
1) Airleaf sold publishing packages but never published the books of numerous authors nor did they pay royalties to authors that were published.
2) Airleaf sold the authors a package called the Germany Book Fair in the fall of 2006, but never went. Carl Lau had his staff tell the authors that during the time he was supposed to be in Germany that he was out of town at the book fair, but he was sitting right at his desk. This money was never returned to the authors.
3) Airleaf was selling the authors Bowker Club after they knew that Bowker had discontinued the service. $84,000 was collected from that service that never existed. This money was never returned to the authors.
://www.airleafvictims.com/
4) Airleaf sold the London Book Fair in April 2007 to authors, but again, did not go, and this money was never returned to the authors.
5) Airleaf sold the Books-To-Film Program where Carl Lau supposedly pitched books to Hollywood producers, but was alleged that he had not. After these trips, the authors received reports about producers interested in turning their books to movies, but he instructed his employees to make up false reports to send to the authors about two weeks after the fact. Or, he personally lied to the authors and made up information to appease them.
6) Airleaf sold advertisements for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Hollywood Review, and other publications for thousands of dollars but allegedly had no intention of actually running the advertisements. The authors never had their money returned.
7) Airleaf sold Kirkus Reviews to 80 authors for $799 in February '07 but never submitted the books or paid Kirkus to do the reviews. The money was never returned to the authors.
8) Airleaf charged thousands of dollars to authors for promotional services that claim to target 5,000 - 10,000 bookstores, television producers, radio shows, and other forms of media. Those numbers were completely pulled out of the air by employees who knew for a fact that all those packages were frauds from the very beginning, and yet they had no problem selling them.
9) Airleaf sold an author cruise on the Carnival cruise line for September 2007 where authors would meet a movie producer for their books. The trip was booked--the money was paid--but the trip was never booked. The authors never received their money back.
10) Airleaf advertised the movie "Jessie's Girl" on their home page to mislead authors into thinking that Airleaf books are being made into movies. They also sent out notices to thousands of unsuspecting authors boasting that their books could become hit films through Airleaf. "Jessie's Girl" was never an Airleaf book made into a movie--it was a script written by Lawrence Dixon, the Vice President of LiteStone Entertainment that was made into a book by Airleaf in 2007. There is no movie--only a movie trailer made by LiteStone. None of the Airleaf Books to Film listed on the Airleaf and LiteStone websites (no longer available to view) have ever been made into a film or even a trailer. It was just a way to have authors invest thousands of dollars in a scam. LiteStone Entertainment's president, Al Smith, officially disassociated himself with the company as of 12/10/07 in a public letter sent to our group.

As of Spring, 2007 Bonnie Kaye had been gathering Airleaf authors together to join her in taking criminal action against a company, many former and disgruntled employees later admitted, that was founded on fraud. The Victim's group now had over 600 Airleaf authors with horror stories from people who had been defrauded from $99.00 to $35,000.00. These authors were joining her to fight back so they would not have to be victims anymore.

This website was originally posted in August 2007 for two reasons: (1) to warn unsuspecting, hard working authors not to throw their money away on promises that wouldn’t come true. By stopping the cash flow of Airleaf Publishing, they were able to close the company down and (2) to help other Airleaf authors who were looking for justice by helping them find justice by insisting on criminal charges for the intentional crimes Airleaf and its owner Carl Lau committed against over six hundred of the known authors and over a thousand of others who were still unknown to the Victim's group. [http://www.airleafvictims.com/]

WHO WERE THE AUTHORS DEFRAUDED
Here is just a sample of the authors who had been defrauded by Airleaf Publishing, starting with Bonnie's own story:
Bonnie Kaye, M.Ed. – Author of Straight Wives: Shattered Lives
She is a professional relationship counselor in a niche market of straight/gay marriages, which affects 4 million women in this country. Since 1984, She had worked with over 45,000 women who unknowingly married gay/bi men and over 2,000 gay men who need support to come out to their wives. My website can be found at [[www.Gayhusbands.com.]] She often received international publicity because of her expertise in this field. She served as a consultant for the top television shows on this subject including Oprah, Montel, and Tyra Banks.
In the summer of 2006, she researched a number of print-on-demand publishers because she had a new book she wanted to reach the public by September 2006. Airleaf promised her that if she paid a hefty fee of $1,850.00, her book would be out on time, placed in 15 bookstores, and she would be paid quarterly royalties. The book came out the same week that former Governor James McGreevey’s book “The Confession” was released. She launched her own media campaign, and she was interviewed by Paula Zahn on CNN and the national FOX news. Sales were booming.
Airleaf’s representatives kept telling her that she was their most successful author to date with over 500 books that sold within the first six months. Although she had a signed a contract to receive quarterly statements and royalties, she only saw one check for $300.00 after six months. Six months later, with nothing more than promises that the money should be coming at any time, her attorney sent a letter threatening legal action with no response ~ Nothing. It was only after she launched a criminal complaint with the Martinsville, Indiana, police department in August that she received a second check which was far less than the money Airleaf owed her for her sales. Bonnie's books were never put into the bookstores, and a number of customer orders were never filled. That’s when she decided to become PRO-ACTIVE and fight back by finding other authors who were also victims of Airleaf fraud. She warned Airleaf and its author, Carl Lau, that she would start an Internet campaign that would close down his business, but he ignored her warning and still refused to pay her the money.

[[http://airleafvictims.blogspot.com/]]


the “Sue Bonnie Kaye” case. Brien Jones, Lau's partner in the crime and founder of his own publishing scam, sent this letter to authors:

"Jones Harvest Publishing along with 230 (so far) plus SIX OTHER COMPANIES is finally filing suit against Bonnie Kaye. I already paid the Miller Law Group in West Lawn PA for the whole thing, so I don't need any money from you or anyone.
I have decided to include clients like you in the suit at no charge. Please believe me when I tell you her attacks on my company have hurt you and your books. You deserve compensation too."

"You don't have to do anything, or say anything, or pay anything, or go anywhere. You'll just get a share of whatever we get back.If you want a share of the settlement, all you have to do is say "Yes" and I'll add you to the list.
I would love it if you stood with us."

This is quite interesting because Brien was proven not to have 230 authors. According to his Amazon reports, he had approximately 150 authors who had published with him. And the odd thing to the victimized authors was they had over 80 reports from authors who had been scammed by him who came to the Airleaf Victim's group for help, so somehow, these numbers just did not add up.

Bonnie responded: ''Let’s say that Brien could find 5000 people to join a law suit against me. What is it he is suing me for? Telling the truth? Revealing that he has been deceiving authors and taking their money without providing services? Is this a crime? Are we all living on that Animal Farm where truth becomes lies and lies become the law?''

In an effort to find a new way to make some money, since selling books was not what Brien was good at according to Brien when he told authors:

"I hope you have noticed that you haven't received any letters about new bookselling packages. It's not because we ran out of stamps. We decided to make it or not, with the books and authors we have. We're still trying to find a way to sell books, when I come up with something I'll call."

They were, Bonnie insisted, clueless in finding ways to sell books and they refused to do what they had authors pay them for—like contacting every media outlet and bookstore within a 100 mile area of their homes.

So now here’s the Jones Harvest new letters sent to all the former Airleaf mailing list:

''You don't need to send money or books.''

''I'll put your book on our websites. No charge, no obligation. I'll even make a few calls. If you want to send me books, I’ll try to put them in stores. (Again, no charge, no obligation.)''

''I worked at Airleaf Publishing through 2006, (they closed in 2008) and I just want to help out if I can.''
http://www.jonesharvest.com/