I guess this agent had some math issues

Biba Caggiano is a Sacramento-based chef who's authored a number of cookbooks. The problem is, her agent, the now MIA Maureen Lasher, decided to negotiate six-figure advance deals for two more books--without telling Caggiano of this fact. Now the chef's suing her agent for the missing money:

Caggiano is seeking more than $400,000 and alleges that Los Angeles-based Maureen Lasher Agency kept two advances that were supposed to go to her. According to documents filed with the court, Caggiano doesn't know the extent of the alleged embezzlement because she can't get any information from her agent. The suit says the agent even attempted to pass off an incomplete Italian recipe book, written by someone else, as Caggiano's work.

"This is very distressing to me. I wish this never happened and that this suit was not necessary," Caggiano said this week, adding that she has been advised not to discuss the details. She had worked with Lasher for more than a decade.

Publisher expected two books: Caggiano -- who owns Biba restaurant in midtown Sacramento and once had a cooking show on cable's The Learning Channel -- learned of the advances only when her publisher contacted her in July about two books for which it had paid advances of $106,250 and $143,750, the suit says. It was, Caggiano alleges, the first she heard about the advances or the negotiations for two new cookbooks.

Advances and book royalties go to the agent and are then disbursed, along with financial records, to the author. Caggiano says she hasn't received any checks or any accounting from her agent. The suit says the amount owed Caggiano exceeds $400,000.

Of course, it seems Lasher had to go the extra mile to hide the fraud from Caggiano, as pocketing the money wasn't enough:

Then, the suit states, Lasher "attempted to deliver to Harper Collins an incomplete and unauthorized manuscript" without Caggiano's knowledge or consent.

Although according to the article, Lasher was once legit, there isn't much evidence of this based on a simple Internet search. But corroboration comes in the form of Lexis-Nexis, which digs up an article about a panel Lasher was on with Michael Carlisle and Bonnie Nadel on finding an agent, given at UCLA in 2003. Going all the way back to 1986, in another LA Times article, Lasher and her husband, Michael, are quoted about how they begun their agency:

Maureen Lasher and her husband, Eric, are agents who specialize in nonfiction with a California angle. Operating the Maureen Lasher Agency from their Pacific Palisades home, the Lashers have sold self-help books by psychologists, cookbooks by chefs such as Wolfgang Puck of the restaurant Spago and biographies of celebrities such Barry Manilow and Kim Novak.

"It's very hard to start a book agency," said Maureen Lasher, who began the business five years ago. "We had an advantage in that we came from jobs in New York publishing. We kept our apartment there, and we go to New York about five times a year. So we're really New York agents, although we happen to live here."

So I guess this begs the question: why would a legit agency go bad? And where are the Lashers now, and who do they really owe money to? No doubt this story will continue to develop...

Comments

[condiment]

Even when the Lashers were ``legitimate'' they were awful, holding onto advances, fostering feuds between editors and their writers, sticking clients with just enormous expenses - and plain making up things up, real Gaslight stuff. They had quite a respectable roster of cookbook writers at one time, before one by one they all fled screaming. I consider myself lucky to have escaped the one Lasher project I was enmeshed with - escaped with no money and no credit, but with my sanity intact.

[jennifer8]

I had the misfortune of living next to the "slashers", as they were refered to by some in that building at 1264 hayworth street,LA 90048, after the blood kirdeling incident when the drunken lunatic they illegally subletted to broke down my front door as I slept. I screamed so much I lost my voice for a week. And you know what condi and dick cheney did? they hid in their house and never even apologized. Amazing how the biggest sleazeballs in life walk around so high and mighty!I'm not at all surprises to hear about this-I hope you nail their smug asses!

[Daniella7]

Just dodged a Slasher bullet! They strung me along for months about representation and didn’t keep their word about submitting my work. WRITERS BEWARE!! These two behave as if they’re dodging a subpoena: No office location, no outgoing message with their agency name or identification period, just a… “Hi, we’re not in.” They never answer their telephone (and you know they’re sitting right there looking at caller I.D. ‘cause if they WANT to talk to you, they pick up.) They only do coffee, no office meetings. To drop off a manuscript for them, they direct you to a seedy art-storage locker down dingy steps off a loading dock, straight out of a Scorcese film, where the reluctant ex-con behind the bullet proof glass tells you it isn’t a legitimate place to leave mail. She’s of dwarf size and strange bifocals and lies through her teeth against the steady chatter of self-aggrandizement. They can hide, but they’re too old to run.