The United States Attorney's Office

Northern District of New York

November 30, 2006
NEWS RELEASE

11/30/2006 Catskill, New York, woman was sentenced to imprisonment of 65 months for
fifteen counts of mail fraud, one count of fraud in connection with an access device, and one count of bankruptcy fraud.

Glenn T. Suddaby, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, and John F. Pikus, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Albany Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that MARTHA IVERY a/k/a KELLY O'DONNELL, age 57, of Catskill, New York, was sentenced to imprisonment for 65 months, in connection with IVERY's previous guilty pleas to fifteen counts of mail fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341, one count of fraud in connection with an access device, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029, and one count of bankruptcy fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 152. Her sentence also included a period of supervised release, and payment of restitution to approximately 231 victims in the amount of $728,248.10. IVERY was sentenced in Federal District Court in Syracuse, New York by District Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr.

As part of her guilty plea, MARTHA IVERY a/k/a KELLY O'DONNELL, admitted that, from May 1995 through September 2002, as charged in the indictment, she engaged in a scheme to defraud prospective authors of monies paid to have their books published and, as part of this scheme:

Presented two separate persona to prospective authors: Martha Ivery, Publisher, Press-TIGE Publishing Company, Inc., and Kelly O'Donnell, Literary Agent, Kelly O'Donnell Literary Agency, Inc.

Obtained payments in advance of publishing from a given prospective author both in her persona as Martha Ivery and in her separate persona as Kelly O'Donnell, without disclosing to the prospective author that they were one and the same person.
Demanded and accepted a variety of fee payments prior to publication of a given book, including initial payments to publish, separate fees for representation by a literary agent, separate fees for editing, separate fees for illustrations, separate fees for a Special Markets Program, and separate fees for a prospective author to purchase copies of her own book prior to publication, and offered a variety of excuses for non-publication years following the initial payment, including: problems with illustrations, problems with printers, lost manuscripts, computer viruses, failed computer disks, and production backlogs due to the large volume of retail orders placed through Press-TIGE.
Made false representations regarding book signings, international book fairs and expos, complimentary cruise vacations and travel, as well as appearances on television talk shows.

Attempted to insulate herself and Press-TIGE from the demands of dissatisfied prospective authors, filed to place Press-TIGE Publishing Company, Inc. into bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York, and reconstituted Press-TIGE in a new entity, New Millennium Publishing House, Inc., and continued to solicit payments from the same prospective authors under the auspices of the new entity.

The charges against IVERY follow an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Further inquiries can be directed to Assistant U. S. Attorney Thomas A. Capezza, Albany, New York at (518) 431-0247.