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More on Robert M. Fletcher (and I will have yet more to say about him).
Fletcher and his various scams have been mentioned here before:
What isn’t generally known is that Robert M. Fletcher sued me, and Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss. My post that particularly got under his skin was this one; I know this because he quoted it in his frivolous lawsuit:
This agency is an utter fraud.What will Poet’s Literary Agency do for you? They’ll betray, bluff, burn, cheat, chisel, con, deceive, delude, diddle, double-cross, dupe, entice, exploit, finesse, flimflam, gyp, have, hoodwink, impose on, jockey, juggle, lure, manipulate, mislead, play, rook, rope in, scam, screw, seduce, shave, snow, stick, string along, suck in, take, take in, and trick you.
The Ann Crispin/Victoria Strauss portion appears to be over.
See (for the moment):
The complete text of the court order requiring Fletcher to pay Ann and Victoria’s legal expenses is below the cut. Highlight:
Over time, Fletcher used over ten names for publishing operations under the umbrella of the AEG Publishing Group. Basically, Fletcher and LAG were running a fraud by charging fees for all services while falsely giving hope to the authors that Fletcher and LAG would find a publisher for their book.
UPDATE 20AUG09 They’re changing their name (again!) to Strategic Book Group
Continued below the cut.
[UPDATE: 20JUN12]
Bobby has renamed his scam (again) to Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency (SBPRA), Publish On Demand Global, Best Quality Editing Services, and Best Selling Book Rights Agency, plus a dozen other names.
Suffolk, SS.
Superior Court
Civil Action
No. 08-0272F
Robert Fletcher and
THE LITERARY AGENCY GROUP,
An individual and a corporation,
Plaintiffs
v.
ANN CRISPIN and
VICTORIA STRAUSS, Indiviuals,
Defendants
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON DEFENDANTS
ANN CRISPIN AND VICTORIA STRAUSS’S MOTION
FOR ATTORNEYS FEES AND COSTS PURSUANT TO CH.
231, § 6F
This civil action was commenced on January 24, 2008 by the Literary Agency Group and one of its principals, Robert Fletcher against the defendants, Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss, and alleged that they both defamed Literary Agency Group (LAG) and its principal, Robert Fletcher (Fletcher) by publishing reports in Writer Beware of the plaintiff’s alleged fraud, misrepresentations and dishonesty towards authors who are looking for a publisher for their books. LAG and Fletcher would require fee charges for literary agency services, fee based publishing and fee based critique and editing referrals. Over time, Fletcher used over ten names for publishing operations under the umbrella of the AEG Publishing Group. Basically, Fletcher and LAG were running a fraud by charging fees for all services while falsely giving hope to the authors that Fletcher and LAG would find a publisher for their book.
This civil action claimed that the plaintiff, Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss were defaming and libeling them by publishing warnings to potential authors of the fraudulent practices of LAG and Fletcher. The attorney for LAG and Fletcher on the date of the filing of this action sought a temporary restraining order against the defendants to remove the critical comments which were on the web site of Writer Beware, and to cease publishing any further defamatory publications about the plaintiffs. In lieu of entertaining the Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order, the Court issued an order of notice. The Motion for a Preliminary Injunction as to the co- defendant, James McDonald [sic], came on for hearing on October 9, 2009 which was denied by the Court. To this judge’s knowledge from a review of the file and docket, there was never a hearing on a preliminary injunction as to the defendants, Crispin and Strauss.
There were some discovery motions filed by the parties. The defendants, Crispin and Strauss, noticed the deposition of the plaintiff, Robert Fletcher, who failed to attend. The defendants obtained an order by the Court requiring him to attend, and he again failed to attend. The plaintiff’s counsel indicated that neither plaintiff intended to comply with any discovery requests. The Court on March 19, 2009 ordered the Complaint dismissed as to both defendants, Crispin and Strauss. The defendant, James McDonald [sic] had already been dismissed by the Court. On April 29, 2009, the defendants, Crispin and Strauss, moved under ch. 231, § 6F for the defendants to be ordered to pay their counsel fees and costs incurred because this case was brought by the plaintiffs in bad faith, was and is frivolous and was brought only to curb the defendants, Crispin and Strauss’ first amendment rights.
FINDING OF FACTS
This civil action was brought by the plaintiffs to intimidate the defendants from publishing articles critical to the plaintiff’s business practices. The plaintiff had no intention of proceeding or winning the lawsuit. The plaintiff, Robert Fletcher, sent multiple e-mails to both defendants, Crispin and Strauss threatening them with both physical harm and threatening them with this lawsuit. In fact, in two of his e-mails, he indicated that his purpose was not to prevail in the lawsuit but just to bankrupt the defendants, Crispin and Strauss.
After the civil action commenced, the plaintiffs refused to give any discovery at all and Fletcher himself refused to attend his noticed deposition after being ordered by the Court to attend.
Eventually, the defendants, Crispin and Strauss, moved to dismiss the case for Fletcher’s failure to attend his deposition, as ordered by the Court.
The plaintiffs have exhibited extreme bad faith in bringing this frivolous lawsuit for the sole purpose causing great expense and harassment to Crispin and Strauss. Fletcher expressly states that it was his purpose in the e-mails. This Court concludes and finds that this case was brought in bad faith by the plaintiffs for the mere purpose of causing great inconvenience and financial costs to Crispin and Strauss (as set out in Fletcher’s pre-lawsuit e-mails to the defendants, Crispin and Strauss). This case is frivolous and this Court finds so, finds that the two plaintiffs and their lawyer, Jerrold G. Neeff, knew it to be frivolous before it even commenced. This Court rules that the defendants, Ann Crispin and Victoria Strauss are entitled to have all their legal fees and expenses incurred paid to them by the plaintiffs, Robert Fletcher and The Literary Agency Group.
This Court finds that the claims asserted by the plaintiffs to be wholly insubstantial, frivolous and not advanced in good faith.
ORDER
The defendants, Ann Crispin and Victoria Strass’s Motion for Attorney Fees and Costs under ch. 231 § 6F is ALLOWED. Counsel for said defendants shall file an affidavit within twenty days of the date of this Order setting the legal work performed by each lawyer or paralegal, the amount of time involved, the hourly rates for each person involved and any expenses incurred.
By the Court,
/s/
Thomas E. Connolly
Justice of the Superior Court
Date: July 31, 2009
The State of Florida is investigating Fletcher:
Case Number: L07-3-1146Subject of investigation:
Writer’s Literary Agency Group, Writer’s Literary Agency, Writer’s Literary & Publishing Services, New York Literary Agency, Writer’s Literary Children’s Agency, The Children’s Literary Agency, Children’s Book Publishing Agency, Writer’s Literary Poet’s Agency, Poet’s Literary Agency, Poetry Book Publishing Agency, The Christian Literary Agency, Writer’s Literary Screenplay Agency, Screenplay Writers’ Agency, The Screenplay Agency, The Literary Agency Group, f/k/a Rapidpublishing-screenwriter911, Inc., Stylus Literary Agency, S T Literary Agency, Inc. , Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company, Writers’ Book Publishing Agency, Strategic Publishing Group, Strategic Book Publishing, Strategic Book Marketing, AEG Publishing Group, My Editor Is A Saint, Author’s Edge, Sydra-Techniques, Global Book Agency, Eloquent Books, and Robert M. Fletcher a/k/a Robert Williams a/k/a Bob WIlliams a/k/a Robert West and Leslie Williams a/k/a Leslie W. MrozSubject’s address:
699 SW 8th Terrace, Boca Raton, FL 33486-5509 (Home Address) 1355 West Palmetto Park Road, Boca Raton, FL 33486 (P.O. Box) or 3840 West Hillsboro Blvd., #302, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442 (P.O. Box)Subject’s business:
Talent agencyAllegation or issue being investigated:
(1) Charging aspiring writers various fees totaling hundreds of dollars for professional services that were either not rendered at all or were not rendered in good faith; (2) Charging for unnecessary services; and (3) Creating unreasonable consumer expectations concerning their prospects for publication by failling to criticize submitted drafts, in order to encourage the consumer and collect more fees.AG unit handling case:
Economic Crimes Division in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
If you, or anyone you know, has had any contact with Fletcher under any of his names, or any of his businesses, please get in touch with the State of Florida.
Please spread this word everywhere.
An alphabet of sins! For a second there I thought High Holy Days had come early. :)
But your portion of the case is not yet resolved?
"But won't Fletcher just appeal this and tie it up some more?"
Well, maybe... but not through a (competent) lawyer. Having defended a few § 6F motions (against collection agencies and mortgage brokerages) myself back in the day, the most important aspect of the order is the part labelled "Findings of Fact". The judge was really irritated at Fletcher (and his lawyer), because by making the findings of fact that he did, in the way that he did, he set this up so that to win an appeal against the order Fletcher would have to show by "clear and convincing" evidence that is already in the record that the judge's decision was not well founded in fact... and then would have to overcome the judge's discretion.
In short, Yog, you might want to consider going after Fletcher's boat with an admiralty lien... because this is a very solid sanction order indeed.
I didn't know you could say "basically" in a court memorandum. Huh.
I pray that if I'm ever sued, it is by someone as inept and self-damning as Fletcher...
Sylvia @ #3
Lawyerspeak can be MEGO-provoking stuff. Quoting from the paragraph immediately before the "Finding of Facts" header:
The Court on March 19, 2009 ordered the Complaint dismissed as to both defendants, Crispin and Strauss. The defendant, James McDonald [sic] had already been dismissed by the Court.
I'd say that is pretty definite.
Sounds as though Jim would have a claim for costs too.
Yog can confirm this, but I infer that he was dismissed for want of jurisdiction at an early stage (Absolute Write didn't/doesn't have enough contacts with Massachusetts to make it an appropriate venue for a Florida resident suing a New Hampshire resident for a business tort). Thus, this finding doesn't apply to him personally, although a judge would be entitled to rely upon those pre-lawsuit e-mails and infer that there was the same purpose as to Yog; this judge did not specifically do so, and was correct not to do so (no personal jurisdiction means nothing is valid).
The next question would be what action Jerrold G. Neeff, Esq, might face from the Florida Bar for bringing a lawsuit that he knew to be frivolous and in bad faith (as the judge stated)? I'm no lawyer, but that seems like it has to be sanctionable.
Myself @#9: make that "The Massachusetts bar" -- sorry for the reading comprehension error.
I am so very pleased by this ruling. And hope that Ann, Victoria and James can now rest a little, and get over the stress that this must have caused them.
I'm particularly pleased by the judge's comment that Fletcher's dealings are fraudulent. That's a lovely little nugget, isn't it?
A copy of that ruling should be provided to the Florida Attorney General. It just might inspire him to take more positive action in shutting down Fletcher's activities.
Fletcher is known to have over seventy aliases.
I have been unable to determine the real existence of the following persons:
Hil Mallory
Mary Bluestone
Ellen Green
Georgina Orr
Sherry Fine
I suspect that they are all Robert M. Fletcher.
Just the usage of those aliases should be enough for a competent AG to base a case of fraud upon.
Among other aliases:
I'm reasonably sure that both "billy Walsh" and "Jonathan" who showed up right here at Making Light were none other than Robert Fletcher/Robert West/Bob West/Bob Williams himself.
Georgina Orr?
That one is kind of obvious, isn't it?
@ #15
Looking at those two posts, there's more than the content. There's a feel to the errors in the text which, with a larger sample and decent analysis, might blow away any disguise. Or maybe not; they're showing a common sort of error in there, and their authors might just suffer from the same imperfections of literacy.
Right now his major efforts seem to be AEG/Strategic Book Publishing/Eloquent Books. He's found the motherlode in vanity publishing, he thinks.
But, you know something? He's still a fraudster, and he will go down and go down hard.
When he does I'll send him a nice fruit basket.
A minor typo - at the moment, both of your links to previous posts go to the "WL Writers'..." article. "Take My Logline" is over here.
I've just come across an advert for this scammer in the on-line edition of The Guardian, put there by Google Ads.
I sent an email to the Books Editor, with URLs for the Florida investigation and the Massachussets court ruling.
This could get interesting, though the UK's libel laws might be seen as an opportunity by Fletcher.
Good for you. It's good to watch fraudsters going down.
Nicholas #19: Thanks. Fixed.
Oh look, a less literary scammer.
my husband has just paid 78 dollars to wl literary agency for a critique on 9/7/09 now they want 2000 dollars for editing before they "sell" his book. i am so upset by all this my husbands book is wonderful and to know now he is being scammed really makes me mad !! What do i do now?
I am glad I caught this in time. I was just sent a contract from WL Agency for my novel. Thank you for saving me hundreds of dollars and a lot of time.
There just seem to be so many victims of this scam out there thinking that if they only could persuade someout out there to read and review their Strategic Publishing book, it would sell like hotcakes.
Thanks so much for keeping the public warned about this!
Could Samuel Peterson from Florida be yet another alias. If so he could be planning to relocate down under! I felt really angry at first, when I discovered the fraud, as I had a book published through Stategic. I am grateful the fraud has been uncovered and look forward to a fair result!
Could Samuel Peterson from Florida be yet another alias. If so he could be planning to relocate down under! I felt really angry at first, when I discovered the fraud, as I had a book published through Stategic. I am grateful the fraud has been uncovered and look forward to a fair result!
If you think you've uncovered another alias, I suggest you get in touch with the Florida Attorney General's office.
My husband has been with the Agency for 3 years now and has never received any edited work that he paid for, some 1489 dollars. We are at present filing a claim via solicitors against the Agency. This is dreadful but Im glad I found this site to help with our claim. My husband has gone on with his book, through another agency and it is being published as we speak! Thank god. I will keep this informed of the decision
Robert Fletcher scam me out of money under the name WL Writers Agency. Who can I report him too?
Barbara, report him to the Florida Attorney General's Economic Crimes division.
Bobby's going to lose his "yacht."
Damn, he almost screwed me.... I am a writer and author who wants to reach the international market... I am on the process of contract signing; then i read this. good thing i researched a lot. thanks for the warning. I owe you guys!!!
This site was so very instrumental in assisting me with making a decision to go forward with the submission of my manuscript to this company.
I WILL NOT!!!!!!!!
THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!
MY HEART AND SOUL WENT INTO WRITING MY MANUSCRIPT AND I WOULD PROBALLY HAVE CAUGHT A CASE IF I HAD GOTTEN SCREWED IN THE DEAL.
Does anyone have any suggestions on a reputable publishing company?
Robin: It depends on the manuscript. I would recommend going to your library and looking at the Writer's Market for a publisher in your genre. After that, follow the submission guidelines, to the letter.
Best of luck.
P.S. You've done the hard part, now start book number two.
I stupidly sent off a letter of enquiry to WL Writers Literary Agency before researching the company.
I have since had two replies from "Mark" and "Sherry", both of which were automated responses.
What a pity that the whole thing appears to be a scam. I really do need a literary agent ...
SHIT!, my wife and i were so excited that a agency wanted to publish our childrens book weve been working on together, I researched the company but the word SCAM wasnt included in the search. Hmmm, we sent them our manuscript and they sent us a contract saying pay 985 and 150 to get the presales going and also build us a web page, im beginning to wonder if "tina" will call us and let us know that everything is fine? any suggestions for children book publishers?
Odds are "Tina" doesn't exist. That "she" is just another one of Robert M. Fletcher's fake names.
For children's book publishers, same advice as for any other publishers. Go down to a bookstore. Find books physically on the shelves that are similar to your book. Look on the copyright page to see who published those books. Get their guidelines and follow those guidelines to the letter.
And while you're doing that, write another book.
You might want to hook up with the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), too.
I too was taken in by Robert M Fletcher and Leslie W Mroz, his partner (in crime). I went through the whole fiasco of them doing a full review of my m/s then the editing and then 'sending it off to the top 10 publishing houses' for a fee of course and then when they all 'passed' we did it all again with another 10. It is so demoralizing to know that these two people could be so cold hearted to shatter peoples dreams. I ended up being 'published' by Strategic Book Publishers. That is where it gets really complicated. I have a copy of my published book and some people that I know that bought it got copies but it never went on general sale. What was the point? Why go to all that effort to actually publish the book? I have tried to find out what happened during the Florida court case but, up to now, have been unable to find anything out. I hope it was ok to add my story to yours. Christine, from England.
The Florida court case is on-going, Christine. You can send your documentation to the Florida Attorney General.
How much did you eventually wind up sending to Bobby Fletcher? How much did "publishing" with Strategic cost?
The point of everything Robert M. Fletcher does is to transfer money from your pocket to his. That's his entire business.
Hi.
Does anyone have any new news of the Robert M Fletcher case going in in Florida. there is no update on the Case anywhere?
I should write a book about the last two years of living with Suzann Durrette (who works for Robert). Needless to say after witnessing Miss Durrette working while intoxicated several times with her massive alcohol problem, in addition to her being a sociopath, putting me in the hospital twice with physical assault, driving intoxicated regularly, a liar and a cheater, and hasn’t paid state and federal income tax since the start date of her employment (which she is being reported to the IRS) so it doesn’t surprise me why she works for this scum.
And she has to attend questing Tuesday in regards of this lawsuit in Port Aransas TX.
I should write a book about the last two years of living with Suzann Durrette (who works for Robert). Needless to say after witnessing Miss Durrette working while intoxicated several times with her massive alcohol problem, in addition to her being a sociopath, putting me in the hospital twice with physical assault, driving intoxicated regularly, a liar and a cheater (And I just caught Suzann Durrette cheating on me with a 26 year old and has been for over 3 months), and hasn’t paid state and federal income tax since the start date of her employment (which she is being reported to the IRS) so it doesn’t surprise me why she works for this Robert M. Fletcher.
And the tax fraud that she is does accounting and book orders with Strategic Book Group and she has to attend for questioning Tuesday in regards of this lawsuit in Port Aransas TX.
Suzann Durrette (who works for Robert M. Fletcher) does accounting and book orders with Strategic Book Group. Suzann has been reported to the IRS and state tax collector for tax fraud. She also has to attend for questioning Tuesday in Port Aransas TX in regards of a pending lawsuit against Robert M. Fletcher and his many alias business names.
My personal experience with Miss Durrette I should write a book about during the last two years of living with her. Needless to say after witnessing Suzann working and answering the phone to customers while intoxicated several times with her massive alcohol problem, in addition to her being a sociopath, putting me in the hospital twice with physical assault, driving intoxicated regularly, a liar and a cheater. And I just caught Suzann Durrette cheating on me with a 26 year old and have been for over 3 months (Suzann is 47 years old). So that is done!
I would recommend staying away from this company.
Okay, Thomas, I think you've made your point.
How do you come to know Ms. Durrette, and what is her relationship with Mr. Fletcher?
Sorry for the multiple postings. I didn’t think it was posting when I attempted the first two times. I haven’t been sleeping well considering my experiences with Miss Durrette. Like I mentioned, she is a very manipulative sociopath and I’m doing all I can to keep as much distance from her as I can. Especially in light the fact she knows I was going to report her for tax fraud.
As I mentioned before, I known Miss Durrette on a personal note and witnessed her business practices. Needless to say I heard her arguing on the phone with many disgruntled would be authors while intoxicated.
Here is something interesting to add to this post considering Robert M. Fletcher has many name changes (along with his multiple business names.
Miss Durrette also has had a few different names in her life and moved around a lot (most likely do to her background). So that might raise some red flags as well to would be authors.
Changed name:
Suzann Lee Durrette
Name on driver’s license:
Suzan Lee Durrette
Other Names:
Suzan Lee Durrett
Suzann Lee Durrett
Suzann Lee Malaspina
Suzann L Rowley
The last two being marred names.
I am also spreading the word around along with this webpage and others like it. People need to be aware of these scammers and hopefully the will be stopped.
Thomas, your posts were held temporarily because some of the phrases matched common spam phrases. You should have seen a note telling you that they were in moderation.
What you need to do now is contact the Florida Attorney General's Economic Crimes Unit and tell them what you just told us. Those are the people who can actually put these scammers out of business.
Yeah, It may have been there and I didn’t see it (eye sight continues to get worse). And as I mentioned, I haven’t been sleeping well these days considering I know Miss Durrette. She is a person no one should ever have to go through in getting involved/tied-up in a live-in with situation ‘so-called committed’ relationship.
I did contact the Florida Attorney General Office three days ago. I don’t know who it was I talked to but they told me for the most part that it was an IRS issue.
Do you or someone else have a Facebook page when it comes to Robert M. Fletcher(Strategic Book Group Scam)?
In fact, maybe everyone that has had negative dealings, and/or experiences with Mr Fletcher, and is affiliates/employees under his multiple changing business names should have a Facebook page - for example; if you do a facebook search for ‘Strategic Book Group’ you will see a lot of pages including ‘Authors names’, and in parentheses after name - (Strategic Book Group).
Well; I have seen the up for review on that last post of mine. I really don’t know why I posted three different times. I was posting elsewhere as well. I really can’t say how it happened, other then maybe ‘fatigue’???
Okay, IRS it is.
Sounds like this Suzann character is doing funny things with money, rather than Bouncing Bobby himself? (He has a history of dealing with dodgy characters to help him in his schemes, as well as the new and naive who he regularly screws out of money. From Bobby's point of view the world is divided into grifters and marks. He allies himself with the former and preys on the latter.)
I don't know anything about Facebook. I don't go there.
I'm really sorry about your personal problems with this lady. Report her to the proper authorities with all the documentation that you have. Then please try to move on with your life. There are people out there who don't fall on the jerk/asshole/douchenozzle spectrum. Try not to obsess over this one.
Now I'm trying to build a spectrum in my head that goes all the way from douchenozzle to jerk...
I have just submitted a letter to the the Florida Attorney General Economic Crimes Unit in regards of Miss Suzann Durrette, being that of Robert M Fletcher's accomplice in the scam/fraud that she willingly, and knowingly participates in (with their multiple alias business names).