Ex-publishers sentenced in fraud case
EL RENO — Events Wednesday added another chapter to the ongoing saga of Tate Publishing & Enterprises, but the book on its story won't be closed any time soon.
Canadian County District Judge Paul Hesse accepted no contest pleas from business founder Richard Tate, 71, and his son and former CEO, Ryan Tate, 40, on charges including 44 counts involving embezzlement, attempted extortion, extortion, conspiracy and racketeering.
The charges were based on complaints former customers of the vanity publishing house had filed with the Oklahoma Attorney General's consumer protection unit. Customers accused the two men of not providing services they had paid for.
Both men were sentenced to consecutive, 10-year suspended terms on two of the felony charges, concurrent five-year suspended terms on the remaining felonies and concurrent yearlong suspended terms on the misdemeanors.
Each will be on probation the next 20 years and must meet prescribed conduct standards and report monthly to the attorney general. They also must reimburse the victims of their scam.
To date, prosecutors said the company owes cheated clients at least $825,895, and the plea agreement the two men made Wednesday required them to pay the Oklahoma attorney general $109,000 on Wednesday. They also are jointly responsible for making a monthly payment of $3,000 for the next 20 years.
Lead prosecutor John Settle said the total represents only claims against Tate Publishing that are supported by documentation provided by just about a quarter of the 2,200 former customers who have complained.
Settle said remaining claimants still needing to file documentation and other customers who haven't filed a claim still may do so by July 1, 2019, meaning that total owed amount could significantly climb.
At a Wednesday news conference, Attorney General Mike Hunter said his office is in the process of setting up a restitution fund for former customers who have shown they lost money, noting his office would be contacting those people before long.
Hunter also acknowledged some victims might have wanted the Tates to spend time behind bars.
But Hunter said his goal from the start was to restore lost funds to the vanity publisher's jilted customers. He thanked former customers for being patient.
Richard and Ryan Tate "finally have accepted responsibility for conning thousands of individuals," Hunter said. "This is an important day for victims around the world as this case has worked its way through Oklahoma's legal system."
One customer, author Heather D. Nelson of Connecticut, was happy to hear the news.
"This is a win after two hard-fought years, and it is encouraging to see the attorney general turn his attention to restitution," Nelson said.
The Tates' plea agreements Wednesday capped a tumultuous two years for the men and their business, which closed in January 2017 with owners citing pressures from online publishing platforms as a reason.
While they promised to help clients find new homes for their books and music, that soon turned into an offer to return clients' materials, but only if clients were willing to sign a hold-harmless agreement with the firm and pay it $50.
When the firm briefly reopened in May 2017, prosecutors filed charges against the Tates.
Lawsuits filed against the Tates and their firm by two significant vendors hadn't helped.
Xerox Corp. filed one in late 2016 seeking about $2 million from the company on unpaid bills for printers and related services. The company ultimately repossessed printing equipment from the firm, but hasn't collected on remaining owed debt.
A second, $1.85 million lawsuit was filed in early January 2017 in federal court in Oklahoma City by another print services provider, Lightning Source LLC, based in La Vergne, Tennessee. Lightning Source also won a judgment, but its attorney previously has said it wouldn't try to collect until after the criminal proceedings were complete.
The Tates' troubles didn't end there, either.
They also lost five Canadian County properties, including homes and their publishing firm headquarters building after defaulting on nearly $700,000 in loans.
Over the years, numerous former clients also have filed civil suits against the company and its top executives, and those continue to play out.
One positive development for Tate clients, however, came in November when Hunter's office announced that at least some would have a chance to retrieve their work using a secure website the office had set up for that purpose.
Before criminal charges were filed, Richard Tate had said the "Christianbased, family-owned" firm had helped tens of thousands of authors get published and have their works sold in stores and online.
At one time, national Christian authors and state business organizations were lauding the firm as Ryan Tate frequently appeared as an active member of Oklahoma's Republican Party to discuss business, politics and health care issues on the Fox News and Fox Business networks.
But in 2012, Tate Publishing caught the attention of news organizations when Ryan Tate insulted and fired 25 people in a staff meeting that started with a prayer. An employee who recorded that meeting shared it with the media, and the story went viral.