Tate Publishing’s owners, Richard Tate and Ryan Tate, have reached a plea deal with prosecutors. They have agreed to pay their victims ONLY $820,000.
The Tate family felons were original charged with an insultingly low number of crimes considering the number of victims they left in their wake. By the time the plea agreement was reached, the charges had increased to 38 felonies and 6 misdemeanors…which, in my opinion, was still incredibly low considering the thousands of complaints the Oklahoma Attorney General received from victims.
As part of the plea, they had to pay $109K up front, and must deposit ONLY $3K/month into the fund for victims. If more victims come forward, the amount due to victims will increase. According to comments from victims posted online, some didn’t bother to file complaints. They now SHOULD do so to increase the amount the Tates will have to pay. Tate Publishing’s victims only have until July 1st, 2019 to file their complaints and supporting documentation with the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Unit!
Do you think the Tates can keep up with their payments? I seriously doubt it!
Let’s do the math, shall we?
$820,000 offered by the Tates in the plea deal
-$109,000 initial payment
$711,000 Balance Due
divided by $3K per month
= 237 months
THAT GIVES THEM 19.75 YEARS TO PAY BACK THEIR VICTIMS!
What nobody seems to be mentioning is that Richard Tate is 71 years old. Why did the Attorney General give him until the age of 91 to pay?! That is ludicrous!!
I have a very difficult time believing their financial crimes only amounted to $820,000. They already have several settlements against them. How are they going to pay those, too? Properties have been foreclosed on and Tate Publishing is dead. Their reputations are destroyed. Did the plea deal prevent them from getting back into the music and book publishing business? I sure hope so!!
Where are they going to get the money? I doubt they can. Perhaps this “plea deal” was another stall tactic to delay going to prison. If they do not keep up with their payments, they will then go to prison since the sentence is “delayed/deferred.”
In the meantime, Richard Tate and Ryan Tate are free while their victims are still scrambling to pick up the pieces, and get their books back on the market.
According to this article, the $820K settlement figure was based only on one-fourth of the complaints received by the attorney general. That indicates they are still lacking documentation from the other victims. They are also seeking additional victims who have not yet filed complaints.
And, finally, what about all of the authors who haven’t received their production files yet?! What about the ones who will NEVER receive those? And, Amazon still has some Tate titles for sale online. Who is receiving the royalties for those book sales?!
Justice was not served in this case. Let’s hope the district attorney does the right thing and imprisons them both if (when!) they stop making those payments.
I’m pretty disgusted with our justice system today!
Read more about the trouble these crooks have gotten themselves into RIGHT HERE.
Please share your thoughts in the comments box below.
Angela Hoy lives on a mountain in North Georgia. She is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the President and CEO of BookLocker.com and AbuzzPress, and the author of 24 books.
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