29 November 2006

Schadenfreude

Martha Ivery, aka Kelly O'Donnell, doing business as a "literary agent" and "publisher" under a passel of names, was sentenced for various literary frauds today in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York in Syracuse. Her sentence has been reported to me as:

  • 65 months in prison, to surrender on 09 January 2007
  • 3 years of probation thereafter
  • Full restitution to the 200+ victims of the $750,000+ she took over the years
  • Substantial counselling
  • $1700 in court costs
  • A variety of other technical prohibitions (e.g., never again engage in a criminal act)

I've been involved in chasing her since 1998. Unfortunately, I expect that final restitution will be in the hundreds, not hundreds of thousands, of dollars. It's still a "victory" of the kind I wish was unnecessary.