Here’s the latest complaints for millions in damages: 

• Conversion
• breach of agreement
• breach of fiduciary duties
• unjust enrichment
• fraud

And that’s just for this month! Kidding… this has really been a long time coming.

Are the lawsuits ever going to stop?  Let’s hope not. After 10 years of abusing fans for greed, it’s time to put this predator down for the count.

Details of the lawsuit by The Last Unicorn Tour investors:

• Connor Cochran used a shell corporation as a personal piggy bank.  The funds were supposed to be scrupulously managed only for narrow purposes, but he helped himself to hundreds of thousands in his care.
• He kept no records of how the funds were used, and refused to give accounting.  He drained them entirely until he can’t pay them back.
• He’s still exploiting the Last Unicorn movie (and Peter’s name and work) for his own enrichment, while everyone goes empty-handed.

They’re suing Cochran for return of a $300,000 investment, interest and compensation to recover it; punitive damages for fraud; and all costs of trial.

Connor Cochran scammed people without limits, to fund a greedy fantasy of bootstrapping himself up to the Hollywood level. No scam was too big or too small.  He’d screw a fan buying a christmas present, a grandfatherly hero of fairy tale lovers, or movie investors all the same.

It was a power trip behind a front of supposed noble intentions. He loved taking credit for Peter Beagle’s work. But this newest lawsuit is evidence that he’s never even had the financial responsibility to run a popsicle stand, let alone properly manage a career.

Peter Beagle is left blameless. All of the wrongdoing has a single source.

Are you still on a wait list for Conlan Press goods? Send refund requests now, but expect things are up in smoke.  Take heart in victories of principle.

Fairness for fans is our goal.  You deserve to love and support beautiful art without predators.  Sympathy goes to everyone who didn’t know about this ugliness, and every small fan who endured years of harm without power to stop it.

PDF: Last Unicorn Tour investors sue Cochran

Continue reading →

WELCOME, new readers and previous victims who are just learning the extent of fraud and abuse by Connor Cochran and Conlan Press. We’re on your side.

Cochran is very fearful of this expose, and about engaging the evidence it documents.  His “rebuttals” were forced down from the Conlan Press website because they were too deceptive to keep in public view.  He has made many claims about having this site shut down.  As you can see, he lied every time.

Denial hasn’t worked.  Public spin has confirmed dishonesty.  Peter Beagle has abandoned him as a shield and brought much wider publicity about the fraud.  

Now Cochran is desperately manipulating customers personally.  He’s sticking to private phone calls, and avoiding written documents.  It helps him to stay evasive, dodge facts and misuse emotional ploys. 

Here’s what the manipulation looks like – and how it’s backfiring.  This expose is convincing his targets, and winning their support for truth and fairness.

“Hi,

I was directed to this website by Connor Cochran of Conlan Press, who suggested that I look at it. This was a phone call from him back in November 2015, and I was asked to make a rebuttal to comments against him and his company.

Here’s my story:

I had attended a Last Unicorn event and had enjoyed it very much. I followed the tour on Facebook for updates, and I became aware of Conlan Press. I fancied a piece of art on that site, and decided to buy it–this was mid-Oct 2015. I paid for the item and shipping cost, immediately debited from my bank account.

I became worried that the package had been lost by the post office in November. The standard delivery time is two weeks in the United States. I was also planning to relocate, so I contacted Conlan Press via email. I received no response. Near the end of November, I remembered the order and contacted Conlan Press again, explaining that this was my second message and to contact me via phone or email.  I believe it was that night I got a phone call.

He introduced himself as Connor and was a very polite, friendly man. I remembered him from the event. He’s very, very talkative. I had expected a customer service rep or volunteer to call and was surprised to learn that he alone was running the show. This was his reason for running behind in shipment. (Why continue to accept money for items when you are that far behind? Or why not get help selling them?)

He explained that author Peter Beagle had been giving him some trouble due to a decline in his mental stability. He also told me that an online stalker had been spreading lies about him and had asked me to rebut any negative comments. He suggested that I check out FansAgainstFraud.com. He also insisted that I would receive my order within the week.

Honestly, when I hung up, I had felt really guilty for bothering him about a silly print while he, Peter, and his family were going through hell.  I decided to check out “Fans Against Fraud” to defend Connor against the rants of an online stalker. But then I actually read this website, which I found wasn’t just endless ranting from one entity, but a collection of reviews from customers who had a similar experience to myself. And why would I rebut anything when I had yet to receive my item?

Of course, it wasn’t until December that I received it. During which, I had learned, Peter was pressing charges against his business manager….

I wouldn’t order anything from that store again. It isn’t exactly Amazon.com :P”

The customer read more evidence, commented on a post, and sent followup:

“At the event, folks were giving Connor the “side eye” because he was holding up the line to meet Peter with his non-stop rambling. I remember thinking “This guy doesn’t talk *to* people, or talk *with* people, he talks *at* them with endless monologues.” But, at the time, I didn’t think him a con, but, rather, a bit crazy and dominating (Peter hardly got a word in).

Connor exhibited that same behavior when I spoke to him over the phone. He wants to talk forever and it’s hard to hang up with him. It’s difficult to recall everything he said to me, but I did comment on your website about the “make Peter a rich man” bit, because it struck me, even when I was believing his story, I had a major pause when he said that, because 1) It’s tacky to bring up an artist’s financial goals to fans of their art, and 2) The numbers of years he said the film, musical, etc would take puts Peter too far into his senior years.

I have a special loathing for cons who prey on the elderly. Not to mention bully and manipulate them, and to try to isolate them from friends and family. Nothing lower, so you bet I’ll keep an eye on the site.

Connor tried to scam me.  Kudos on the site–very thorough and well documented.”

SUPPORT PETER BEAGLE at the official site for his legal fight.  Complain to the California Attorney General and the Washington Attorney General. Report suspicious financial activity to the IRS.  Report Federal Mail Fraud to the US Post.  Document abuse at Ripoff Report, and send your story to fansagainstfraud@gmail.com.

“This was a long time coming” – first comment from public.

For a year, this site has spoken against resistance to expose a history of abuse by Connor Cochran and Conlan Press. It caused consternation among many fans who didn’t want to believe their eyes. Some would Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil about ten years of scam victim complaints. “We need more evidence!”

It was just as Cochran planned. Smart people set their judgement aside out of love for Peter Beagle. Peter was manipulated as a shield, while they were misled by a fog of excuses, deceptive charm, movie tour hype, and oily PR.

Cochran’s properties grew behind the false front.  From small publishing scams, he rose to seducing investors for millions with a sham corporation (Avicenna).  There were no limits to his calculated greed, or what he would do to hide it. It is sociopathic abuse (details below- “Gaslighting The Victims.”)

But independent victim reports kept coming, despite denial.  This site holds documents in confidence that could make you cry.  You can tell how important they are by how hard he tries to bury the expose.

Countless customers are complaining across the internet, with reports of being cheated and misled by a con artist.  Former employees won’t put Conlan Press on their resume, with abuse exposed by Cochran’s own blundering. (Whistleblowing by Michael Bolger was unknown until Cochran attacked him and exposed it himself.)

Now comes hard evidence of elder abuse for gain. Until now, it was only hinted by Cochran’s shady behavior, but we predicted this.

Peter Beagle has no communication with us. His report is independent. It ties many threads together, bringing major publicity that the fraud has needed for a long time.

We delivered the first sustained expose. Now respected news sources, world class authors, true fans, and Peter Beagle are spreading the call for fairness against fraud.

• Cartoon Brew: ‘The Last Unicorn’ Scribe Peter S. Beagle Sues His Manager for Elder Abuse And Fraud
• Comics Beat: ‘The Last Unicorn’ Author Peter S. Beagle Sues Business Manager for Elder Abuse
• Bleeding Cool: Peter S Beagle Sues Connor Cochran Alleging Elder Fraud
• Author Jim C. Hines: Peter Beagle Sues Conlan Press
• Reddit’s fantasy fans: Peter Beagle is suing Connor Cochran & Conlan Press

Putting FRAUD in headlines is a major victory. Abuse can’t stand against consumer rights and fairness. The tide is turning and the expose is relentless. Remember our promise a year ago:

Despite Connor Cochran’s cockiness about courts… if you see this site live, he doesn’t have a thing to do about it. If he can’t get this site taken down, take it as a firm clue that Connor Cochran is lying. This site reveals the truth of the scandal he caused. We won’t be silent until fairness is won. We PROMISE.

Cochran broke his promises for 10 years. We deliver ours. The story is way bigger now and it won’t go away. The emperor’s clothes are gone. Cochran’s false front is “in tatters”, because Peter won’t be a shield any more.

Read Peter’s lawsuit in full.

All 48 pages are worth reading. Don’t skip it. It hits hard with a compelling story, clear timeline and convincing support. It’s sad and shameful to see the cheating Cochran did, but opens a better future for Peter and his work.

Beagle is earning love and support from true fans and the top of his profession. His story is spreading through prominent fellow authors like Neil Gaiman, Wendy Pini, and Charles De Lint. Their professional inside experience validates the story.

Hundreds of shares show that there’s nothing “frivolous” about this. Across a worldwide audience, Cochran is consistently being called out as a villain, abuser and fraud. One of countless scam victims confronts him:

What better evidence would I need to be convinced that you’re a crook than to have been personally cheated by you myself?

Peter’s report corroborates 1o years of previous complaints. Could there be any more powerful support? It independently confirms fraud.

Our expose was accurate against disbelief. So please pay careful attention to what we share from this point on.

We know worse than what’s been told so far. We’ve seen hurt beyond any you could suspect by hearing the Conlan Press excuses. Anyone who clings to Cochran’s sinking ship is in for a terrible trip. If you still keep a shred of sympathy, don’t – back away.

Get on the right side – believe the victims. 

A small core of misled followers are still unsure about Cochran.  But even cult brainwashing victims can come to their senses. Others should know better and are shamefully complicit. If you hear anyone dispute Beagle, look for how they benefit.

There’s no conclusion except shame to see Cochran break up Beagle’s family. Beagle’s kids went months without seeing him face to face, and didn’t accompany him on the movie tour where abuse happened. They degrade themselves by associating with Cochran now. This is common in tabloid stories. When Hollywood money is involved, children aren’t above betraying elders.

Damage is deepened by others who couldn’t possibly be witness to abuse, but still help Cochran blow smoke with fluff quotes of inconsistent time and place.

Questionable ties and silence make an issue itself, involving sources like BoingBoing editor Cory Doctorow and the File 770 Sci Fi fan blog. These SFWA associates should know better than to deal with Cochran in his sordid partnership with disgraced ex-SFWA lawyer Charlie Petit.  Then there’s the abuse-enabling blogger who gets severe criticism from his own readers for violating ethics others won’t – by dishonestly “reporting” Cochran’s PR without question, until it continually fails and has to be “updated” with reversals. (Exhibit ‘A’ for what journalists don’t do).

All of that is harming the victims.

Some of these followers are troubled by cognitive dissonance.  They’re desperate for a villain besides Cochran to blame. That’s another fake distraction. Cochran’s first defense was spuriously attacking Peter for “undue influence” – with none to name, because he has to concoct excuses now.

For everyone else who was shocked to learn the truth, remember that even Peter was conned while dependent. Don’t beat yourself up for trusting him before.

This expose has consistently maintained that Connor Cochran is the center of the scandal.  His wrongdoing is separate from Peter Beagle.  Any questions about Peter “looking the other way” are answered with his lawsuit. He had everything to lose by risking his career for fairness.  That’s a sacrifice for principle.  Go Peter!

Support Peter Beagle now.

Direct support isn’t the only thing fans can do.  If you want to buy Peter’s work, buy from publishers he isn’t suing (like Tachyon) or buy used.

DO NOT BUY ANY EBOOKS or unauthorized goods.

DON’T buy t-shirts, prints, or any other goods benefiting Connor Cochran at Amazon or Conlan Press… if you even expect they’ll be produced when you pay. The sales will fund lawyers who fight Peter. Cochran will be desperate to fund the court fight he caused. Even if you don’t care who profits, you take the huge risk of going empty-handed when he loses a $52 million lawsuit and goes bankrupt.

NOW more than ever, demand refunds for undelivered goods. 

Take no excuses. Keep pressure going even if ignored. Don’t relent or hold out hope after years of fake promises. Hold Cochran accountable to help yourself and Peter. Keep funding to it’s promised purpose and away from Peter’s opponents. Conlan Press has consistently refused refunds, while mountains of the money pays for self-serving litigation – until they’re put under fire of public outrage.

Cochran’s abuse isn’t stopping – it’s worse.

Until Beagle’s lawsuit, the cheating was all about greed. Now it’s desperation while Cochran struggles to fund court costs. Recent business dishonesty:

• An ebook sale to supposedly benefit Peter Beagle in his “upcoming move” launched on December 3 – the day after Cochran was served with Peter’s lawsuit.  That reason was later deleted from the Conlan Press webstore. The “Last Unicorn” Facebook page owned by Cochran kept spreading the sale.

• An unauthorized “Peter S. Beagle Fans” paid campaign appeared on a newly created Facebook page.  The timing is especially manipulative. On December 21, 2015, the desperate cash ploy advertised a shirt sale of a few short days. Among thousands of unaware “likes”, comments report not receiving previous shirts, and suspicion that the artist of the shirt isn’t aware of the sale. The artist confirmed that the art was taken without permission and requested removal.

• ‘Two Hearts’ (falsely “pre-sold” since 2005) was last promised for publication in October, then November 2015.  The Conlan Press webstore now announces Spring 2016, with no explanation for the latest broken promises.

• The Last Unicorn Facebook page is arguing with fans and removing complaints. They include reports of missing DVD’s, Blu-Rays, and “Better Beagle Bundle” sales of indefinite delivery – and heartless cheating of movie tour volunteers, who were promised shirts and thank-you goods that never arrived.

This exploits Peter’s name and work, to finance a fight against Peter. “The irony is as obvious as it is nauseating” – (personal friend of Peter).

Cochran is obsessively exploiting Peter’s voice and putting words in his mouth:

• Cochran controls Beagle’s social media accounts so he can’t be heard. Messages from fans to Peter are deleted and Cochran’s side is posted under Peter’s name.

• He’s spreading Peter’s intimate personal life across Reddit to attack his side – with duplicitous demand for privacy for Peter’s kids, and no debate until court.

• He’s using other’s names to excuses elder abuse, as if a 77-year-old should tour like a young rock star:  “Peter liked to stay at people’s house on tour whenever he could for all the same reasons that Neil Gaiman’s wife, Amanda Palmer, liked to do it.”

Gaslighting the victims

Cochran’s manipulation shows calculated GASLIGHTING to spread doubt.

Misinformation was spread against Peter well in advance of his lawsuit, to prime the public to receive Cochran’s side.  The lawsuit documents Cochran’s manipulation of Peter’s own doctors, to fake evidence of health problems and “alcoholism”. That’s a cold sociopath at work. We previously reported the same tactics used against Cochran’s former employees.

Memory problems? What problems? The lawsuit gives evidence that Peter is in fine health, while claims of “forgetting key people and events” are spurious.  Case in point – Peter’s rememberance of Christopher Lee in mid-2015.

There are other victims not revealed yet.  If you hear Connor Cochran attack the character of anyone – it’s reasonable to assume that they have reports of abuse he’s afraid you’ll hear.

The manipulation is utterly professionally calculated, with decades of practice (he was once a TV news correspondent). If you hear charm and seduction from Cochran, be aware that this site holds documents of extreme verbal abuse he has done to bully and silence some victims. They aren’t ready to share yet. Help them.

Keep asking questions and sharing news – and expect business collapse.

Cochran played Peter’s agent, personal life manager and publisher all at once – with breathtaking conflict of interest.  

• “Brian Wilson/Eugene Landy all over again”. – link

“Publisher” is a term for companies that produce goods.  But for 10 years Conlan Press was just a signature factory with other publisher’s goods and one golden goose.  Meanwhile, Cochran’s real business was in court, suing to take other’s work and silence victims.  It made a house of cards.  Without Peter and his fans, this won’t last.

• “Well, obviously they need to keep taking orders so they can refund the old orders. Nothing pyramid about this.” – link

As more and more disgrace comes out, Cochran is desperately using every song and dance he can to spin the story.  Across his network, he’s doing a frenzy of hour-long phone calls to lather people up with oily PR.  In his tales of deceptive charm, he only had noble goals without gain for himself.  He was Peter’s angel, beset by coincidence after coincidence, and a vast conspiracy of evil, crazy enemies.

It’s loaded with manipulative guilt about how he tried to “make Peter a wealthy man“, while bashing Peter for abandoning his “chance”.

That’s a hollow ploy, and here’s why.

There wasn’t going to be a new Last Unicorn movie that involved Connor Cochran. He was chasing $125 million from Chinese investors and Hollywood players – as if they would seal a deal with Avicenna Development, a sham corporation suspended for tax delinquency, partnered with disgraced ex-lawyer Charlie Petit.  They knew. Movie producers aren’t easy prey like small, powerless fans.

He puts on a big show, but knows his future is grim.  As soon as this expose came out advising victims to report to authorities, Cochran ditched his California business location and fled the state.  

Now, why does the focus of a fraud scandal and $52 million lawsuit move to Bellingham WA, 15 miles from the Canadian border?  Watch this point.

In the history of scamming by owner Connor Cochran, Better Business Bureau complaints show customers waiting TEN YEARS for undelivered goods.  (2014: “This project is now nine years overdue”.)  Corroborating complaints across the internet make an inescapable conclusion: the lowest estimate starts around $100,000 in scam sales.

That’s tens of thousands paid for audiobooks, and hundreds of documented “Extra Deluxe” Last Unicorn books sold and never delivered to victims.  That’s only TWO among other titles, leaving much more unknown.  How much higher do victim losses go?  Take a guess when “The Last Unicorn did 2.5 million video sales” in 10 years and the “novel has sold 6.5 million copies.”

One scam victim has been documenting her ordeal with being deceived, concluding: “No one will be getting their refunds.” She is still getting the runaround after seven months (and counting). After persistently pleading for help, she’s left empty handed with nothing but sadness at being cheated.  Her ordeal began in April 2015:

NO MONEY IN THE BANK?!!

A legitimate company would have no problem paying back a small sale of mere art prints to one person.  But not Conlan Press and it’s owner. No Money In The Bank is the official statement and Connor Cochran’s excuse (swear on his mother!)

Meanwhile, he boasts of spending $5 million to plump up his Golden Goose movie, soliciting $15 million from investors, licensing deals, “over 60,000” ticket sales for a movie tour, and “over 300,000” merch sales on his Last Unicorn Tour website.

Your eyes are not deceiving you: Connor Cochran is simultaneously bragging of hundreds of thousands of sales and million dollar budgets for himself… and not a dime to repair hurt to a pleading, empty-handed buyer.

“But when the taxman comes to the door, Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale…”

It’s a policy of denial.  Let’s summarize this victim’s 7 month experience of the Conlan Press Attrition Process to block victims from refunds:

• April: Victim pays for art prints. Conlan Press makes vague promises to deceive her about delivery in “approximately 4-6 weeks.” She orders a DVD too.
• Delivery dates come and go with empty hands, and no communication.
• Victim is forced to chase Cochran to beg for help, but gets ignored.
• Victim persists.  Cochran stonewalls her pleas for written answers, stringing her along with vague, unwritten phone calls and no solution.
• Victim persists. Further pleas are ignored.  She is forced to chase answers from a Conlan Press front person. (History shows that blaming the employee comes later.)
• Finally, she’s told that since she patiently waited through vague delivery dates, it’s too late to get a direct credit (oh, really?)  But… the check’s in the mail.
• Surprise, the check isn’t in the mail.
• Forced to plead again, she gets a vague promise of a check in 4-6 weeks (again).
• November: More pleas. Still no check.  History shows that Connor Cochran is more than willing to string victims along indefinitely.

The Conlan Press Attrition Process: watch with disgust as another victim’s refund claim persists through three house moves and EIGHT YEARS OF LYING by Connor Cochran… all that effort to deny their refund, instead of doing one drawing to get their book delivered.

This is clear – he doesn’t care who gets hurt, to reap profits for himself at any cost.

After a decade of stringing customers along, here’s more of Cochran’s excuses in a list longer than you can count:

• Relocating to Washington in 2015 while fleeing scrutiny in California.
• Beagle’s decline in health, which conveniently refreshes an oldie –
• Cochran is still hiding behind Beagle’s mother’s death in 2006. The moldy “mom” excuse extended to 2014 and beyond. It was on the conlanpress.com “updates” page, forced down in 2015 by rising public outrage.

During all the excuses for all these years, Cochran was spending at least tens if not hundreds-of-thousands of dollars on lawyers (who cost hundreds an hour). He was diverting payments for goods (on top of fan donations) into legal manoeuvres to capture The Last Unicorn movie for his properties.

It was far from the only extravagant legal spending.  In 2012 he sent more attacks at his victim, Sydney Gurewitz Clemens, an elderly children’s teacher.  She paid him $25,000 to publish her book, but got nothing.  After breaching the contract, Cochran refused to return what he took, forced her to sue for help (PDF), and piled on abuse and heartache by dragging her through vicious court fighting.  At your expense.

Now he claims there’s no money.  Demand documented accounting for how your payments were really spent.  You’ll get non-answers like the above customers did.

When you wonder where the money went, remember: Peter Beagle doesn’t own Conlan Press.  All of the cheating feeds back to Connor Cochran.

Beyond consequences for scamming, Cochran has one thing to capitalize on by stringing everyone along.  When Beagle’s time runs out… it’s all in the bag.  And with such shamelessly venal behavior, death just makes a new excuse for non-delivery.

Complain to the California Attorney General and the Washington Attorney General. Report suspect financial activity to the IRS.  Report Federal Mail Fraud to the US Post. Document abuse at Ripoff Report, and send your story to fansagainstfraud@gmail.com.