The downward spiral continues for Connor Cochran, abusive ex manager of Peter Beagle. His fraud is bringing strong public scrutiny. His lawyer just dumped him. Now he faces an injunction to prevent him from exploiting Peter’s name and works to enrich himself.
Cochran is abusing Peter’s name as a false front on social media and in business, and continuing to make money from his works without paying him. Cochran has been “selling as much as he can… to raise money for one purpose only: so that he can use it to sue Peter with.” (See here at bottom.)
In September 2015, Peter hired a professional fiduciary to handle all of his finances. Cochran was informed of duty to pay money owed to Peter and “frequently indicated an understanding” about it months before Peter was forced to sue. This exhibit from a court document shows why a lawsuit was strongly provoked.
Funny that in September 2015, before there was any lawsuit, Cochran got a crisis manager when Peter hired a fiduciary. Guilty much?
An injunction will reduce egregious money grabbing for Cochran’s scam operation, like the Last Unicorn movie screening on 3/27/16. Fans were misled to ask if Peter would appear, without knowing about his lawsuit against the people running the show. (A comment we linked here was deleted – they forgot this one.)
Besides ripping off and gaslighting Peter, and dealing with the strongly provoked lawsuit, Cochran is also countersuing Peter’s girlfriend. It’s a strategic smokescreen and punishment to emotionally defeat Peter, cut him off from support, and keep him under Cochran’s thumb. All of his heinous wrongdoing makes a lot of legal bills.
Cochran’s abuse is funded by exploiting you, the fans of Peter, to keep buying from Conlan Press, ebooks on Amazon, and more. And he desperately wants to stop you from knowing. Don’t let him. Please share with hashtags #LastUnicorn and #TakeBackTheUnicorn.
Coincidentally, Cochran’s Last Unicorn page on Facebook suddenly “forgot” who owns it, when repeatedly asked by fans. His crisis manager began deleting their comments and posts wholesale. It’s a transparent ploy to dodge accountability.
And on 4/5/16, Cochran’s lawyer dumped him for abusing court process. His substitute is Richard Mooney, who previously served Cochran to take over the Last Unicorn Movie rights. His remaining support comes from closely tied cronies. If you see them spread denial, speak up with questions that destroy it.
The injunction seeks necessary relief from the corruption. It puts force behind public awareness. Here’s the full text.
But if CC’s company now owns the rights to TLU, how can he legally be stopped?
Fraud isn’t legal, nor elder abuse… he can be stopped with a legal injunction. See page 7 parts A-F 🙂
Well, but it will take some court time to prove that, wouldn’t it? He currently has the rights to the film in his clutches. You know what he’s doing now? He’s trying to get fans to sign a petition for the making of a live action film via TLU Facebook page.
I gather that an injunction happens BEFORE anything is proved. The purpose is to “freeze” things immediately and prevent further harm caused by the actions causing the lawsuit until it is resolved.
That petition is ridiculously less than worthless. Change.org is the laughingstock of activists. You can’t “petition” one business to make deals with another business, especially when one is being sued and nobody will go near it. Whoever is managing that page and put that up has no idea how business works, nothing more than a suck-up to Connor. Here’s another such example.
No, that was the former social media manager who set that petition up.
Connor’s arguments about people preying on Peter – mostly directed at Peter’s girlfriend – all circle back to his assertion of Peter’s lawsuit being the only reason the movie deal didn’t work out (and Connor is also blaming Peter’s withdrawal from having anything to do with Conlan/Avicenna as the reason other book projects have not yet gone to press. Conlan’s projects are FOREVER “…about to go to press.”). There’s NO OTHER WAY to show harm. And every time Connor has to argue about Peter’s mental capacity, he rolls out the same story about Peter demanding Connor give him his mother’s ashes, which Connor says he already had – whereas MANY people can counter Connor’s claims by relating examples of having perfectly lucid and lengthy conversations with Peter.
And Connor’s only real argument for “helping” Peter – the argument that the negative influence of others that is causing Peter to make harmful or bad decisions – has to do with the lawsuit, and loss of the Japanese investor interest in the potential movie – because what other benefit does Peter gain by associating with Conlan/Avicenna/Connor otherwise? Conlan is a Beagle signature factory that hasn’t published anything, and everything they DO sell is published by other companies; the film tour investors are suing Connor for not paying them or even accounting for the money; Connor lost another lawsuit for taking money from a teacher who wanted to be an author by promising to use the money to publish her books, and never did; and there are thousands of fans and volunteers who never get things they paid for.
And, if ANYTHING Connor claims about Peter’s health is true, then the days of endlessly signing books and doing movie roadshows should be over. So what value is there in enlisting the kids to gain conservatorship? Simple: Connor gains control over the part of Avicenna – and the rights to ALL of Peter’s work – that Peter can and is contesting. And Connor can then dangle the unlikely prospect of millions of dollars pouring in from film investors in front of Peter’s heirs. That’s the only reason, because IF their claims about Peter were true, he should not continue working at even close to the pace Connor had been working him before.
If their claims are NOT true, then why try to make such a claim? Because otherwise, Peter IS in his right mind, and is justified in separating himself from a business that is both built entirely on his work and reputation, while being managed so poorly it is destroying both. If Peter prevails, Connor would have to make a full accounting to EVERYONE about all of the money: to the fans, about the sales of books that have not shipped, and of books that have not even been PRODUCED yet, in some cases, for more than a decade now; to the tour volunteers, who were promised gifts that have never been sent; to investors in the tour, who were offered impossible returns, and yet have not received one penny in repayment or a single accounting of how the money was spent; and to Peter, whose work provides Connor’s SOLE INCOME, and which has allowed Connor to live in million-dollar homes while the creator of the work itself lived in apartments.
If nothing else, if NOTHING else, Peter should be receiving money from the sales of the ebooks – which were launched en masse AFTER the lawsuit was filed – and the sales of the books that have happened since, plus a portion of the money from the screenings of the film – which continue without his involvement. But Connor/Conlan/Avicenna refuses to give any accounting, much less any payment, and Peter is having to rely on being paid by other editors and publishers who will work with him directly for new work. It’s only speculation to assume that the argument would be that Conlan and/or Avicenna owns the rights, and thus owes no accounting or payout to Peter under whatever contractual terms Connor talked him into – but as Conlan Press and Avicenna are built IN THEIR ENTIRETY on the work of Peter Beagle, then any money came to those entities FROM the work of Peter Beagle, so it’s easy to see who benefits most from maintaining the status quo. And as Connor’s full time occupation is running Conlan Press, if he is withholding anything from Peter because those entities control the rights, then he’s only been able to do so because of the money Peter’s work generated, which has been his own sole income.
This whole conflict has NOTHING to do with Peter’s health – which Connor claims has been a problem for a LONG time but which somehow never stopped him from touring with Peter and taking him to conventions – and EVERYTHING to do with the shoddy way that Connor has run Conlan Press. Period.
Kevin, I’ve been under the impression that CC or his junior crises manager is running the Facebook site. Are they not?
When I saw that LU movie petition, I thought CC mad enough to get kicked out of Wonderland. I mean, this guy’s got how many lawsuits flying at him, and he’s still chirping on and on like this? Still having happy LU events, too? I’ll say only this for CC, he can handle stress a lot better than I can.
Yeah, I’ve seen change.org before; they send me PLENTY of emails. I signed only one, and I think it was to stop bullfighting in France & Spain. But I agree that some of their petitions are beyond silly.
Was it Picasso who is quoted to have said that “great artists steal”? I should have requested CC’s autograph, as well ;)))
Yes, Connor has control of Peter’s Facebook page. He controls all of Peter’s social media – Peter can’t even log in to his own page or read the BS Cochran and his pals are posting.
He doesn’t need to log in to know what their saying–I think you keep him well informed Deborah 😉
PS: Sorry about all the spelling/grammar typos in my comments–lol, I use an iPhone 😉
Heh. No worries.
Look for a Facebook page coming shortly for “the REAL Peter S. Beagle”, to which Connor will have zero admin access. I’ll let everyone know when it’s up – hopefully the nice person putting it together and handling the admin will have time to get to it sometime this week.
Good 🙂
Now the latest excuse for non-delivery is this site and all the legal trouble people are giving Conlan Press. I saw these “unforeseen circumstances” being blamed when a customer mentioned that their delivery is more than a year late on the LU FB. These new unforeseen circumstances do not refer to a death in family, anymore.
Conlan Press is scrambling to find people’s delivery info (according to them) but where went all the data in the first place? According to CP, it had been mixed up, lost, confused (the story varies depending on location/region) in the computer; I do believe the info was mixed up, lost, and perhaps even discarded, but I don’t think it was quite that accidental, because that would be far too many coincidences. Not to mention, a lot of customers were immediately charged via the credit or debit card numbers they had typed into the system.
Hi Natalie – isn’t it funny how the “unforseen” circumstances resemble confusion and forgetfulness? The projection is strong with Connor Cochran.
This comes straight from Peter Beagle. Bookkeeping? “Connor doesn’t do that.”
Taking all that money and refusing to say where it went was absolutely intentional. With the investor lawsuit, now he’s going to have forensic accountants a mile up his butt.
Where order fulfillment is concerned, there has long been a pattern of confusion and apparent forgetfulness on Connor’s part. Many, many people can testify to having had Connor promise something will be delivered, only to never have it happen. Perhaps this is indicative of a greater memory problem – in which case maybe someone claiming to have only his best interests at heart should legally file for conservatorship over him and his business dealings.
The “unforeseen circumstances” resemble life :)) I have unforeseen circumstances everyday. Life is full of them. However, as a CEO running a company, you cannot tell your customers that one aspect of your business (shipment and productivity) must be brought to a screeching halt due to life’s unforeseen circumstances, while the other aspect (accepting money & new orders) remains unaltered. For example, a death in the family… If a circumstance demands a CEO to withdraw from the company for a little while, they hire people to take over their task. He couldn’t have hired help sooner? Because he can hire expensive lawyers with no problem.
Yes – and let’s say somehow Connor and Peter’s children’s effort to gain conservatorship over Peter is successful. How does that change ANYTHING with regards to how Conlan Press has been run? Connor has stated over and over again that it’s Peter’s health that has necessitated halting his participation in the film tour…so if Peter really is struggling with health and/or memory issues that will prevent him from being as involved in the sales operations as he had been, then what does the conservatorship do for ANYONE other than removing the right of a partner – Peter – to sue the other? Conlan will continue selling things they can’t be bothered to deliver; they’ll still be sued by Sandbox for not repaying the tour investment; and Connor may think he can go do a new movie deal without Peter – but investors will be aware that he only got control of the rights by forcibly taking them away from a beloved creator.
I imagine he will. That’s why he’s finally trying to get the stuff delivered. However, the lateness of the deliveries will still be an issue in court.