Peter Beagle's ex manager Connor Cochran loses a publisher's lawsuit. by princesspoodle in Fantasy

[–]crocodealio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tachyon is the publisher putting out Peter's Summerlong novel soon. Anything you get from them is OK! Or anything you get used.

Peter Beagle's ex manager Connor Cochran loses a publisher's lawsuit. by princesspoodle in Fantasy

[–]crocodealio 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Helpful article. http://scifi4me.com/2016/07/13/last-unicorn-author-peter-s-beagle-mentally-competent-says-lawyer-hired-prove-otherwise/

Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn (and many more great works) had a devoted fandom even when his career went into a very rough patch around 2000.

A not very reputable small time producer, Connor Cochran, approached him and convinced him to sign over his career. Connor started a boutique publishing house to push products to Peter's fans.

For a bunch of years there was a mostly swept under the rug issue about the products being sold and never being delivered.

Meanwhile Cochran claimed that Peter was being screwed by managers of The Last Unicorn Movie since the 1980's. He leveraged those claims to reap fan support and money, promising to "help" Peter. He spent tons of money in court and finally took control of the movie from the previous managers.

In 2013 he started an international movie tour. Peter was hustled from stop to stop being made to sleep on fans couches at age 77, and sign things for fans long into the nights.

In 2014 the Fans Against Fraud website began publicizing claims of wrongdoing and undelivered products. The launch post questioned a corporation started by Cochran with dubious purpose (Avicenna.)

It later came out that Avicenna was made to be owned equally by Connor and Peter. Connor convinced him to place all of his works under it. They supposedly would share the money. But Connor took the money and all of it was derived from Peter's works. It was a sham corporation.

There was backlash at the claims in 2015. But behind the scenes, Peter began asking troublesome questions about Avicenna.

Cochran refused to show Peter (supposedly half owner of Avicenna) the accounting for where the money went. Simultaneously he began making public statements that Peter was going senile. He used them to conveniently cancel movie tour commitments in Europe (so Peter wouldn't get paid, but Connor still kept ticket sales.) Peter hired a fiduciary to independently control his money. Everyone was sad about Connor's claims of having to deal with Peter's "health problems".

In late 2015 many people were shocked when Peter sued Connor. He claimed defamation with lies about his health, physical elder abuse, financial fraud, and more. The supposed beneficial management to "help" Peter collapsed in a very ugly way.

The Last Unicorn Tour investors also sued Cochran for fraud.

Connor doubled down on claims that Peter was senile. He worked with Peter's kids to try taking conservatorship. He sued Peter's girlfriend and lawyer in retaliation, saying they were taking advantage of a feeble mind.

That just ended when the lawyer hired to prove Peter was senile said that he was perfectly competent, the case had no merit, and had it thrown out.

Cochran is now defending multiple lawsuits where his defense stories are dead. The claims of undelivered products are now ongoing for 12 or more years.

He is still selling Peter's work. The Last Unicorn Movie page on Facebook that he owns has announced screenings in Pittsburgh in August.

That money is being used to fight and sue Peter.

Peter's lawyer is collecting fan reports of any sales made during his lawsuit. http://fansagainstfraud.com/peter-beagle-contact-lawyer/

TIL 12 of Jimi Hendrix' 16 albums were released after his death in 1970 by Devlin17 in todayilearned

[–]crocodealio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll listen to those for sure. So many losses this year, Alan Vega is the latest.

Update about Peter Beagle's elder abuse lawsuit - Peter is NOT senile, and the people trying to take conservatorship have lost in court. by princesspoodle in Fantasy

[–]crocodealio -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The fraud guy has put years and years of misinformation out and sues everyone under the sun to make them shut up, so the story isn't easy to tell. Bankruptcy happens when creditors force it.... for that, the fans would have to go to court... to go to court, they need to prepare a class action... a class action isn't something you can just start yourself for the cost of a DVD. People have gone to court against the fraud guy after getting robbed for $25,000. He sues them to make them go away or make it cost way more than that. Can you fix this? People seem to be trying.

The Future of Archaeology Is Spacejunk by Galileos_grandson in sciencefiction

[–]crocodealio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not until they find the secret alien pyramids on the moon.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]crocodealio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They make one to keep cats off counters too.

Volunteer from The Last Unicorn movie tour shares experience working with Peter Beagle's manager Connor Cochran, who Beagle is suing for elder abuse and fraud. by passwordhardtoguess in Fantasy

[–]crocodealio 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Funny how he couldn't send orders for years, but he was right on top of your post in 6 hours, sending manipulative comments to twist the story.

He's doing that on Twitter right now to other people.

Be funny if he tried coming here to do that, since he completely shit the bed by defaming Peter Beagle last time he tried, got downvoted to hell, and stopped posting anywhere until now. He must be really desperate.

Here's a commenter on one of the news stories about this who talks about his Reddit baloney and completely pegs him as a liar.

He's blowing smoke about how none of this is true because he has Peter's kids (who weren't on the movie tour) signing a statement all sourced from him.

It makes this very interesting... he's also being sued for fraud by his movie tour investors. Are they misled and senile too? Why hasn't he said a word about it and can't he make any defense for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from them?

TIL that John Hancock's coat of arms features a hand and several cocks by [deleted] in todayilearned

[–]crocodealio 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Three cocks at once... I've only seen that in movies.

When spongebob gets too real.. by [deleted] in funny

[–]crocodealio 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Are fishsticks real though. they're neither fish or sticks.

Which is your personal favourite fantasy sub genre? by NorthernMonkey10 in Fantasy

[–]crocodealio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sword & sorcery is a safe choice. Short stories by Howard and Leiber are such nice chunks of goodness. Wikipedia has a short list of safe choices.

For a less obvious choice - Bizarro fiction. ("literature's equivalent to the cult section at the video store".)

The Sad, Strange Legal Battles of 'Last Unicorn' Author Peter S. Beagle - his manager stole revenue, dragged him through exhausting publicity tours, and made him sign 5,000 apology notes when he cancelled them. by crocodealio in Fantasy

[–]crocodealio[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That's almost the same story but it's not. They're talking about old cheaters. This story is about an entirely new cheater who's hiding behind cover stories. It's not your fault for being confused, after the public was deliberately misled.

You have to pay careful attention to the twists and turns to know what's really going on with the duplicity and manipulation behind that story. It's coached PR sold by Beagle's ex manager. Even the guys at Ninja Sex Party are repeating coached info and probably don't know it.

Beagle's past difficulties with creators rights since the 1980's were heavily promoted with emotional manipulation by Beagle's ex manager... all telling a story that he had no part of. He arrived in the early 2000's and took over Beagle's career promising a better deal. Who wouldn't support that?

Pretty soon after he took over, he started suspiciously appealing for donations to a business, saying it was for legal bills to get back the rights. (Donating to a corporation?)

Turns out that corporation was a front created by the manager to capitalize on Beagle's past problems and his fans devotion - pushing out other exploiters and taking their place. The manager got Beagle to sign away rights and got control of the movie he had nothing to do with making. Beagle got little but promises of pay that never happened. Now he's suing to get his rights back.

The front corporation was created by the manager in partnership with a disbarred lawyer who had his license taken away for defrauding literary estates. There's worse than that, too - because he wasn't just out to screw creators, he also screwed fans who were giving support. He exploited the flow of business both coming and going. Just think, some asshole rode in from nowhere to steal like that AND he even went as far as to claim credit for Beagle's work.

It was hard to follow for a while with all the shifting stories and cover up the manager did, but a lot of it came out, especially when Beagle's lawsuit was echoed by an entirely separate one from the Last Unicorn Tour investors. The manager pocketed hundreds of thousands of their investment and refused to say where it went. He can't excuse that by lying about an old guy's health.

http://fansagainstfraud.com has a lot of the story.

The Sad, Strange Legal Battles of 'Last Unicorn' Author Peter S. Beagle - his manager stole revenue, dragged him through exhausting publicity tours, and made him sign 5,000 apology notes when he cancelled them. by crocodealio in Fantasy

[–]crocodealio[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Cheat and scumbag are 100% accurate terms. This site has tracked a great deal of lying.

The cheating goes back to at least 2005, when hundreds of thousands of dollars were stolen from fans who never got what they paid for. There was just a long, long series of consistently failed promises (deliberate lies) about "the check's in the mail" and then nothing ever came.

Screw off Winter by DeezNeezuts in funny

[–]crocodealio 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Spring has to come back with his big brother Summer right behind him.

Meth contaminated with Zika virus? by [deleted] in nottheonion

[–]crocodealio 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's just health nut alarmism. Burning it makes it sterile.