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Xerox is suing Tate Publishing for $1.7-million…

12:15 PM EDT on June 7, 2016

ryan tate fox news

Uh oh, it may be time for another employee group prayer at Tate Publishing.

Yesterday, The Journal Record reported that Xerox has filed a $1.7-million lawsuit against Tate Publishing for not paying its bills. Xerox is also seeking to repossess all printing equipment they have leased to the Mustang-based vanity press.

The Journal Record has all the details:

xerox tate publishing

Oops. I always forget The Journal Record has a pay wall. Anyone know a lawyer, banker, realtor, or Saxum employee who can share a login and password with us? Right now, the only free stuff the Journal Record puts online are Ted Streuli's columns about bow ties and what it was like to live in San Francisco in the 1980s.

Actually, I'm kidding. I don't need a password. The opening line to the article is all we really need to see. Ryan Tate, the CEO of Tate Publishing, is seriously complaining that a company is using the legal system to intimidate him. That's not cool, Xerox! As Ryan Tate has shown, the best way to intimidate people is to threaten to file a lawsuit... not actually go through with it.

Via a Journal Record article that's not behind the pay wall:

In a recording of an employee meeting held this week obtained from a Tate employee by The Journal Record, Ryan Tate threatened to sue staff members and file liens against their houses and cars if they violated their employee contracts by talking to the media or sharing information about the company on Facebook and Twitter.

In the recording, Ryan Tate said he would fire 25 production workers after no one came forward to take responsibility for the anonymous email sent out to employees on Sunday that decried the rumored layoffs.

“Good people are going to lose their jobs – it’s not fair,” Ryan Tate said in the recording. “It’s not right, but that’s the reality of the situation. Jesus himself is the perfect mix of mercy, grace and justice. I have probably failed you in that I have been a little too lenient and a little too on the side of mercy and grace and not on the side of justice.”

At the meeting, Ryan Tate then went on to say several employees had already been named as defendants in a $7.8 million lawsuit for breaching their employee confidentiality agreements. A search of state and federal court filings revealed that no such litigation has been filed as of Thursday, a fact Ryan Tate later confirmed. However, the company is considering suing several of its former and current employees for contract violations, he said.

Ahh, what sweet memories. That's the old Journal Record article about the time Ryan Tate prayed with 25 employees before bullying, berating, chastising, intimidating and then firing them for simply being worried about their job security. Well, actually he fired them because he wasn't man enough to tell good, hardworking Oklahomans that their jobs were being outsourced to the Phillipines, but whatever, here's the audio in case you forgot about it:

I'm a big believer in what goes around comes around, which probably explains why I live my life in a constant state of fear and paranoia, so I think this lawsuit is sweet justice. To this day, I still get emails, Facebook messages and even phone calls from former Tate Publishing employees and disgruntled customers who are still scarred from their experiences working at or with the company.

Emails like this one from May 11th, 2016:

Dear Patrick,

My name is <....>. I am a professional translator from Spain, hired as Spanish translator in October 2015 by Tate Publishing and Enterprises LLC, 127 East Trade Center Terrace, Mustang, OK, 73064, to perform the translation of various Christian fiction books.I am writing to you to because I thought you could be interested about that Tate Publishing owe me $ 6,123.24 for the services of “Spanish translations” invoiced to them on October, 20th 2015, November, 11th 2015, November, 25th 2015, February, 4th 2016 and February 13th 2016, which involved nearly four months work on a full-time basis.

As you can see, I don't know if Tate have outsourced jobs to the Philippines, but I can assure that they came to Spain, and that they have an strategy not to pay us for our services. For the time being, I know two more Spanish translators that are in the same situation than me.

I just would like to add that I give you permission to use and disclose this information if you deem it necessary. Should you need further details, please, don't hesitate to contact me.

And emails like this one from May 9th, 2016:

I published my book <...>  worth Tate Publishing my book was released on January 19, 2016. I received a royalty check for a pre-sale book. Fast forward 5 months and I am not wasting over 40 days for my royalty statement. My question to you is. Can you find out why it'd a common practice for Tate Publishing to lie about the dates they will be receiving their royalty checks. Writers are businesses. We spend our money on hopes of a return and when your company has in its contract that it's going to pay you but it doesn't. We go out of business. Can you help me with a direct number to the top any one?

That email is 100% [sic]. I know I have my issues with typos and stuff, but that writing style is indicative of your typical Tate Publishing author. Let's be honest, there's a reason they have to pay Ryan Tate $4,000 or whatever to get their book published.

Here's another email from March:

My daughter had a dance competition at Rose State last month.  After a painful day of mediocre dances (except for my daughter of course), several dads were called on stage for a dance competition. Imagine my surprise when one of the dads was TLO favorite Ryan Tate.  The douchebaggery was off the charts.

Okay, so that's not a disgruntled employee or writer, but I think it helps illustrate what people around town think about Ryan Tate. He can't even do the worm at a recital without pissing people off. In case you care, here's the video:

If the whole vanity Christian book publishing / Fox "Business" expert thing doesn't work out for Ryan, it's good to know he can always pursue a career as a back up dancer for Color Me Badd.

Anyway, I guess we'll continue to follow this story and keep you updated. Well, that is if we get that Journal Record password. Once again, can a Mole help us out with that? We'll trade you Clark Matthews Brazzers password for it. Hey, a Clark Matthews reference!

p.s. - If you're bored, you can view the lawsuit here

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