Scam alert: Parkstone Press / Sirrocco Publishing September 30, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Scam alert.trackback
One of my former students was just scammed by Parkstone Press / Sirrocco Publishing. She thought they were legit because they sent her a contract. After not receiving timely payment and having her e-mails ignored, she attempted to contact them by phone. Unfortunately she then learned that the New York and U.K. office phone numbers listed in the contract were fake. Upon further research on Payment Practices and Proz.com, she found out that they have done the same thing to countless translators in the past. All 3 company listings on Payment Practices (searching for “Parkstone”) have a PP Reliability Score (PPR Score™) of 0 and a Translator Approval (TA Score™) (would you work for them again?) of 1, which are as bad as it gets. I cannot stress this enough. You should always research potential new clients on the various payment practice groups that are available to translators or at a minimum do a Google search before agreeing to accept a translation job. Hopefully this post will serve as a warning to potential translators in the future.
Musings from an overworked translator 
I fell for a scammer once near the beginning of my career as a freelance translator, though I suppose I should be grateful to the swine. A few hundred euros is a cheap lesson in the importance of due diligence.
A lot of our business is based on trust, and I find this a good thing. However, here ol’ Ronnie Raygun’s advice is relevant: “Trust, but verify!”
Sometimes verification is not easy. One of my favorite direct clients was obtained after I insulted the consulting recruiter for the new translation team by calling him a fake and pointing out that he was invisible on the Internet and met a number of criteria for scammers. However, in the end he was able to verify his identity by pointing out that we were part of the same translators’ association, which goes to great lengths to verify identity and qualifications.
I’ve set up a blog to report on the fraudulent practices of Artfise, which is the name of Parkstone’s Paris bureau. You can see it here:
http://artifiseinparis.blogspot.com/
I am an English- German to French translator and have been scammed by Parkstone too. I signed a contract with Parkstone for a 50000 word translation in April 2007 after negotiating a extension for a deadline which seemed very unreasonnable to me. Before signing the contract, I was given a sample of the text to translate which they approved, but when I asked to see the full manuscript before agreeing to sign, they bluntly refused for reasons of “confidentiality”. Being totally ignorant of the right procedures, I finally agreed and did the job which was very hard work.
Hi Marie,
I’m an English to French translator and I’ve read your post with great interest as I worked for Parkstone in February and haven’t gotten paid either although the book I translated was released last Thursday. The contact you mentionned (Elizabeth Woodwille) sounds very familiar indeed as she was the one who asked me to do the job. I also exchanged a few mails with Eliane de Seresin whom I called in July to ask whether I would ever get paid. I was then told to contact the New York office by mail as Artfise did not deal with payments, or so she said.
So I would really appreciate if you could give me a few tips on how to proceed next. Would you suggest I sent them a registered letter, too? I don’t intend to let go either.
Hi Pierre,
I would suggest you read the other comments and contact those people and see what they have done. There is also a website devoted to Parkstone cited in the comments as well. I’m sorry I can’t help you more, but I’m sure the others can. Good luck!
Sincerely,
Jill
Hi Jill,
Thank you for your message. I knew about the website and I’m going to post something pretty soon. I’m going to try to contact the people you mentionned as well.
Thank you again.
Pierre
Continued message:
After sending numerous messages to chase them for payment, I rang the Paris office (the contact person was Elizabeth Woodville) and was told that they were experiencing some treasury problems and had their accounts department based in Vietnam! Finally, I sent them a registered mail urging them to pay me unless they wanted to be taken to court. I have been involved in a lawsuit with them for two years now and am determined not to let go. I would be very grateful for further testimonies of other Artfise/Parkstone victims.
Hi Marie — I’m a reporter working on a story about Parkstone and its affiliated entities. I’d like to know more about this lawsuit
Hi,
my experience is similar to Kevin’s and my first “client” was a con artist who still owes me some 90 euros plus late payment interests for over 3 years.
A cheap price for learning my lesson, as I did not fall for Parkstone/Artfise et al. when contacted through my profile on a translators’ site.
My advice: always double- to quadruple-check everything. And if your gut feeling still says “NO”, then abstain and move on..
Hi Pierre,
Interesting to see how many people have been scammed by Parkstone. It almost seems like it is common practice for them not to pay their translators! I would suggest you follow the legal procedure and send them a registered mail with a payment deadline, just to see how they react. But whatever you do, keep track of all your communications and the names of the people you communicate with. I have found stunning information as I did some research on the Net about the people who work for Artfise and their connections. I wish you good luck and keep me posted!
Marie
Hi Marie,
Thank you very much for your reply. I did what you told me to do. I haven’t heard from them since. But I don’t really expect much from them anyway. I also had few friends of mine review the book I translated on Amazon and elsewhere. Each of them mentionned the fact that I didn’t get paid for the work. It may prove useless but who knows. Have a good day.
Pierre
Hi Marie,
I’m afraid the registered letter I sent them didn’t lead anywhere.
Could you please tell me what you suggest I do next? Everybody seems so quiet about it. As a member of ATLF I tried to explain on their forum what the problem was and didn’t get any satisfying answers. As if I mentionning “Artf/Parks” was like blaspheming or something.
I mean, should I consider myself on my own from now on and try to contact some good lawyer or is there any other way to deal with it?
Is there any chance to gather all the translators who have been scammed by Artf.Parks and go for a joint action?
In case you want to contact me by mail : baril.pierre@orange.fr
Thanks in advance for your answer and Happy New Year btw.
Pierre
Marie, you write:
“I have found stunning information as I did some research on the Net about the people who work for Artfise and their connections.”
What exactly do you mean by this? I’m sure we would all be very interested to know. Feel free to communicate by email should you prefer to keep this confidential…
– disgruntled (of the artfiseinparis blog).
Hi everyone,
I too have been scammed by Parkstone Press.
Do any of you think we bring a class action? If nothing else, then to chase them round the bend. I am determined to put up a fight, and we are clearly in the right here, even signing contracts, some of us delivering work for a few thousand dollars’ worth. (They even published a translation of mine! Imagine the bloody nerve!!!)
I see enough grounds to go for it…
Miriam
I’m up for it. Let’s hope we won’t be the only ones.
Pierre
Do you think there’s a particularly good way of pooling all of us, seeing as there has been mention of scammed colleagues on other sites? I’m fairly certain there’d be more people up for it if they knew about it. What do you think?
Well, I think you’ll find all you need to know on the blog I mentionned. And you might think : “wow” all these people who were scammed by Parkstone. Great.” But I couldn’t really get any help from there. But at least you’ll see plenty of interesting testimonials. If you get a chance, take a look at the comments. Also very interesting.
You’ll find my e-mail in one of my previous posts.(january 28).
(That’s my real address by the way. I know I should have been more careful but it’s too late for that anyway.:) )
Honestly, I have no idea. Have you checked out the artfiseinparis blog? You may want to try and ask disgruntled about it.
Sorry, I wish I could give you a better answer. Again, I think a class action is a great idea. Using Facebook could be another way. Maybe.I’m willing to try anything.
Please keep me posted.
Pierre
As for the blog, the answer is ‘not yet’. I’ve only just started researching the Parkstone scam.
Facebook might be a good idea. I will also try and ask around on forums/bulletin boards.
e-mail me at ‘glesca at gmx.net’ if you want to (my email address for spam / public sites, will then give you my “real” address)
those of you interested in discussing such matters may wish to know that i have a dedicated a page of my blog to the issue of a possible class action law suit. really, it’s just a place where you can leave comments and get in touch with one another but it seemed a good idea to centralize information on this issue. feel free to visit and have your say:
http://artifiseinparis.blogspot.com/2010/02/possible-legal-recourse.html
Hi everybody,
I did a huge project for Parkstone last year, fell for them, but because they seemed to be a big and well known publishing house I didn’t double check. Now I’m still waiting for the 4700 USD which is quite a lot! They even sent me the book, imagine! I’m a member of the German literary translators’ association who provide a kind of legal help, their attorney sent some emails, but now he doesn’t want to go any further. I would gladly take part in that class action law suit – would you please keep me informed? I will try and contact some of you privately. I also think about hiring a money collectors’ agency, but don’t know which one yet. Does anybody of you have any recommendations? Any experience? Success stories?
I translated about 7 books for Parkstone plus some blurbs etc. over the space of about 3 years, and was lucky enough to get paid for some of the work, though they still owe me about 12000 dollars. Since the company has been set up in a very clever way, it is impossible to pin down the directors, and no lawyer will take up the case. Your contract is not worth the piece of paper it is written on. I am not defeatist by nature, but here I would say: It is best to take it as a lesson. I for my part at least enjoyed the work, and the two girls, Elizabeth and Eliana were professional and delightful to work with – only they never had any authority to write out any cheques.
What a lot of fraudsters there are around… they are characterised by endless greed and they have no professional pride. They like to exploit the work of others. And the evidence against some of them is piling up…
Just a matter of time…
Maybe I don’t know what I am talking about as I am only an author, but ….
Would it not be possible to add a clause to any contract recieved from anyone that “All rights to the copyright for the translated work remain with the translator until payment is recieved in full. In the event of none payment the copyright remains with the translator and the translator reserves the right to publish the work, or deal in all rights to the copyright by way of assignment to third parties to recover costs.”
If you are employed on a “work for hire” contract in the UK or USA then ´part of the contract would surely set out payment terms. If the party then renages on their part of the contract then surely the whole contract would be void and you would hold the copyright in most countries. If you are from a country that enjoys translators “moral rights” ie Germany, Brazil or France, then maybe your case would be even stronger
If someone then didn’t pay and went on to publish you could use the contract as evidence to have their book unpublished with a takedown notice to the likes of Amazon etc.
To all GERMAN (and all EUROPEAN) translators who got screwed by them: Go to the police, file an ANKLAGESCHRIFT with the STAATSANWALTSCHAFT for BETRUG (I did it via an attorney but this is not necessary) and get a little whirl in the whole affair which seemed stuck. It takes time because interpol is slow but it makes them a little fire under their asses as they start getting nervous and paying small bits.
And:
Go to their huge (!!! – I think it costs much more than the money they owe us…) booth at the FRANKFURT BOOKFAIR in Hall 8 (in 2011 its 8.0 O937) and grab Cornelia Sonntag – but beware of their cheques (written by her but pre-signed by Jean-Paul Manzo), they are definitely not covered, believe me, I tried it and my hope was disappointed.
And have a word with their old man Klaus H. Carl as well – he is an old-age-pensioner who does all the editing work for free (imagine!) and happily so because it is his hobby and they let him travel first class to the bookfair and sit in their big booth enjoying the fair and babble on how nice and fantastic they are, not realizing that he is undermining other peoples jobs.
And:
Watch out – they changed their name again – now it’s not Editions Artifise any more but Temporis Collector, same address in Paris. Even on their homepage they changed it (french version, under “distributors”).
(By the way – wonder who might act as dummy for director of this new business construction? Right, Klaus H. Carl, the innocent old man. Bet he does it for free again.)
Hi all!
Nice to have your comments about Sirrocco, Artfise. They have cheated a number of companies in India as well! Thorough this we would like to share and discuss with you how we get our payments from them.
How to punish them – they are cheating people around the globe without any fear and we cannot do anything…………
Please share your views.
Hari Om
India
There is a one stop linguist blacklist
http://translationstreet.co.uk/linguist-blacklist
You can check for scammers, bad payers now prior to taking an assignment.
Wasn’t sure about approving this comment, since it appears to be an ad. There are plenty of other bad payer lists out there. I suggest signing up for several – preferably ones that are not new since there are more people active on them. More members means more information on more bad payers.
I understand your apprehension.
However that list is not an Ad.
I agree that there are many lists out there but the TranslationStreet list allows for a search without registration.
I know because I created the System.
Although the database is still being compiled, it will likely be the largest list for Linguists on the Internet.
As for the lists age, it is in fact over 3 years old. It is just that the database requires all those entries to be manually entered into the database from ‘e-mail form’ source.
An arduous task.
The list when completed will contain over 2,000 debtors.
That said I do agree Linguists need to look at all sources for information.
I am amazed to discover that Parkstone are still up to their old tricks. How can a firm like this get away with dishonesty on a global and industrial scale over a period of more than 12 years? I wrote texts for them on Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec in the year 2000. I have never been paid in full. My Degas text was recently republished in a book attributed to a Russian historian called Natalya Brodskaya. I do not know whether she was a party to this scam or not. I would like to know if there are other authors whose work has been misused in the same way by Parkstone. Please contact me on pjsbade@aol.com
I was scammed by them too. Hired in Vietnam when I was there at an educator’s conference. Went back to my school in Biejing and later home to Australia on holiday, and was enjoying working hard on the beautiful ARt texts I was proof-reading. However, I was always paid late, and I had to email them to say I would not complete a work until I was paid for the previous work I had alreaady done. They never complied, and I am still 800 USD out of pocket. Rotten creeps.
Hi Claudia
In case you still actively read this blog, i’d really appreciate getting in touch with you or you getting in touch with me.
I took my case to the prud’hommes and like to discuss that with you.
Thanks
Karin
Hi Karin,
Yes, I’m still at it – I just can’t let them get away just like that… Please contact me under translator@women-at-work.org
Regards,
Claudia
They still owe me over 10,000 dollars, too, going back 3 or so years. The whole company is clearly set up to cheat and to make money for the directors. Around the globe there are not just translators, but also authors, printers, etc who have not been paid for their work. Since registered letters bounce back unopened, I doubt that any law firm would have much success. Neither Elisabeth Woodville nor Eliane de Seresin are to blame, they were only acting in good faith, as employees, and were probably screwed too.
Best to put it all down to experience. At least we all got some translation practice – and the texts were actually fun to do!
Isabelle Weiss, Cambridge/UK
Hi everyone, I hope my message will still go through.
Head: Jean Paul Manzo with 2nd: Cornelia Sontag (his wife).
Senior Editor: Aline Breant. She contacts the translators.
Marketing: Julien Robellet.
Accounting: John Garcia. He takes care of the checks and payments.
Adress in London’s a empty closet, phone line installed but none there. Adress in New York is right but no one is actually there, the phone line is therefore useless. Adress in Paris is right, one person works there. Phone line correct but they won’t help. The HQ’s in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.I trust this’ll help.
This bullshit company is a small vietnam oil painting factory.
Hi everyone.
I have recently obtained a “paid internship” at Parkstone HQ in Vietnam. I am supposed to be starting on 15th May and have already booked a flight for next week. I have just discovered this blog and am very worried. There are things that, from the beginning, seemed strange to me, but I didn’t take much notice because I thought it was an excellent job opportunity. What would you recommend that I do?
Thanks very much in advance.
Request a refund from the airline. You don’t want to work for these people.
Hi Ruben,
if you can cancel the flight – please do. Even if they should pay you in advance (and I would never ever work for them without advance payment, but besides, they won’t anyway) they don’t deserve you spending your good will and your good work at them…
Hi Ruben.
you are right to worry but an internship in their HQ in Vietnam is not the same as translating for them from abroad. You should be fine. They will give you the money back for the plane after the first 2 months. You can be sure of that. The tricky thing is to leave, at the end of your internship. Make SURE to leave Vietnam only AFTER receiving your last salary or you won’t receive it at all. The problem occured.
Hi there, I also just recently obtained a “paid internship” there which is supposed to start around 2 weeks later and now found the blog here, which makes me also think about it profoundly. I luckily didnt book the flight yet but was going to tomorrow. Maybe we can get in touch? I am also from Germany, guess you are too (Ruben, a german name).
Hi Ruben,
i also got an internship at Parkstone to start at the beginning of June. Did you cancel your flight yet? I luckily haven’t booked yet, but was going to tomorrow. For some reason, my earlier post of today didn’t appear on here, so I am writing to you again. Please lets get in touch!
Hi,
They have also phoned me for an internship in Vietnam and I’m VERY worried about all this.
What did you finally do?
I’m supposed to give an answer by the end of the week.
It’s seems like a TO great opportunity to be legit!
Did any of you end up going?! What happened?!
We are authors who did several books for Parkstone. At first they were slow in paying, then no pay. Later, they sent checks that didn’t clear. I would insist on cash or a certified check.
Hi Janet, i cannot believe that this has happened to so many people already! Have you made such experiences with other companies, too? And what happens, if a company is not satisfied with the quality of the authors work, do they have to pay the authors-at least less-or are they allowed not to pay them because of their bad work?
Henni
I think it depends on the contract, but there should be some communication between the publisher and the author if the publisher has issues with the quality of the author’s work. In our case, Parkstone published the work with little or no editing, and never paid or made only the first payment and no subsequent payments after that.
Incidentally, for those in the New York area, Parkstone will be in NYC for the Book Expo America show May 29-June 1. You may want to stop by and say “Hello” or anything else you’d like to say to them.
HI Elisabeth, well, it is up to you, how you feel about it. I decided not to go because I just could not have a good feeling about the job anymore when I found out about those things. It is a question of trust and also karma.
Hi guys, thats kind of “funny”- even if it isnt- last week i got a call from parkstone if i want to do the internship in vietnam, if possible beginning on 15th of july..
That is really kind of “funny” – So what are you going to tell them now? It seems like that with such bad press, they don’t get any sort of “overachievers” over there anymore, I guess. ;-D
For those of you in Germany or plan to be in Germany in October, Parkstone will have a booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair. They also have a Facebook page and a wordpress blog if you want to make any comments. i think it’s important to have their name in front of people wherever possible, to avoid anyone else getting scammed
Hi Janet
I’ve worked 6 years for them and have translated around 35 books, and yours (and your husband’s or brother’s sorry) were among these.
I also have a long story to tell. I’ve taken my case to the Prudhommes in Paris and I’d like to discuss that with you. Not the legal aspect of it, don’t worry…
Please write to me at karin.py@free.fr
Best regards
Hi Janet,
I tried their booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair several times (I’m German and attend FRA regularly) but to no avail. Manzo never seems to be there anyway, always only Cornelia Sontag (she’s playing the little old lady without money, ooh, she’s so poor, she doesn’t even bother to carry a handbag …), some marketing guy and the old-age pensioner Klaus Carl who’s there for the cookies… I have no idea left what we could do at their booth. Are you planning to go there in October? Shall we try something together? Do you want to contact me? translator(at)women-at-work.org
PP have owed me some 12.000 US$ for over 3 years now. As far as I can tell they have been very clever at setting up their operation in such a way that no-one can get at them. Their contracts are not worth the paper they are written on, it is not clear where there registered office is, nor where the directors reside – therefore no lawyer will want to touch the case, because the address on the contract is fictitious and no-one has personal responsibility. In addition, they are clever in hiding their money, and where there is no money to be had, what good is it to take anyone to court? I went to see them at the Frankfurt Fair a few years ago too, and came away with a cheque which then bounced (causing me extra expense with fees …). Quite frankly, we can only want all our colleagues not to be as naive as we all were, and put it down to experience. After all, translating the books WAS actually fun, and interesting – that’s the only reason why some of us did a few projects (all with ridiculous deadlines!). But the fact that they don’t even let the translator have a copy of the printed book is further proof of their totally unprofessional attitude. Let’s face it: they are crooks, and have been doing this for years! Probably living quite a high life. We could go there, as a group, and form a wall around their stall for 3 days, telling all their potential clients about their crooked ways. While this would not get us our money, it might mean they go out of business altogether.
YES! Isabelle!
I am actually trying to organize my stay in Frankfurt. I just talked to Claudia in Germany (and yesterday to Janet and Gerry Souter). Maybe Claudia is going to F. too. We are all alive and kicking!
I know it won’t bring my money back but it would be only for the fun of making them look bad! Ohhhh wie schadenfroh von mir.
My judgment is on November 7th at the Prudhommes, we’ll see what they come up with to defend themselves!
Hope to hear from you Isabelle
Karin, let’s all agree on a day during the Fair.
Perhaps we should organize printed teashirts “I am a Parkstone Press victim” OR “PP continues to exploit translators”.
I should be able to get this done in China or in Berlin.
Great Idea!
I just talked to a new translator friend in Mainz. Maybe we can arrange something. I’ll keep you posted.
It would also be great just to see eachother again.
Could we talk privately? I m back on the market and more eager than ever to work.
My address : karin.py@free.fr
Cheers
Please keep us informed of your plans here. I am also a victim of Parkstone’s scam and might be able to make it to Frankfurt for your “event”….
Good to know, but it would be nice to know who you are, or at least what were your contribution and the “damages” you suffered? 😉
I am not a translator myself, but I am glad I found this website. I was about to buy a book issued by them, but after reading the posts above and on http://artifiseinparis.blogspot.com I decided not to sponsor the crooks and cancelled my order.
Hi,
I am not translator but I see your website by chance when I google for a new job. I cannot believe that such a comany can live long time after cheating many people. I am Vietnamese so I decide to help you find some information in Vietnam. After searching everywhere, I got little information because they haven’t registered much information with Vietnamese goverment. I hope my information can help you. I do this because I really hate dishonesty people do that bad things in my country. Just feel free to tell if you think I can help something more.
I get this information “BASELINE is the Vietnam office connected to Sirrocco Publishing Limited, a well-known publishing company specialising in the publication of historical art books. Located in Ho Chi Minh City, BASELINE houses the production and marketing departments, as well as part of the editorial department.” Then I found information of this company in Vietnamese and translate it for you here:
Name: Baseline company
Head office: 61A-63A Vo Van Tan, Ward 06, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City
Director: Jean Paul Manzo
Source (in Vietnamese)
http://www.thongtincongty.com/masothue.php?mst=0303015703
or:
http://diachitot.net/dia-diem/cong-ty-tnhh-baseline-125944.html
Also I found this. Don’t know if it helps but you can get more information about him and his company names with their status:
https://www.duedil.com/director/915565291/jean-paul-manzo
https://www.duedil.com/director/915565291/jean-paul-manzo/directorships#widget_directordirectorshipsdocwidget
Anothers names for these scammer :
Confidential Concepts International
E-Parkstone International Ltd
Lavender Hill Investment Ltd
all managed by jean-paul-manzo and cornelia sontag
I can confirm Lavender Hill Investment is scammer already sued by Check printing house – I guess they owe them a money.
Bloody bastards!
Does anyone have any feedback about the internship experience? Was it legitimate? Were you paid in a timely manner?
After reading the above entries, would anyone want to work for this company? I’ve spoken with a number of people (not mentioned here) who have been scammed by Parkstone. It’s possible Parkstone (or their other “companies”) does pay their interns, but it doesn’t pay its hard-working translators, authors, photographers, printers, etc. There’s some plagiarism going on as well. Recently, I received a call from a man who works for a high-profile publisher who said that Parkstone had used their image of Georgia O’Keeffe without permission. In fact, it appeared that someone had scanned the photo from one of their books. (Would that be an intern’s job?) There’s also an entry in http://artifiseinparis.blogspot.com which tells a similar story about Parkstone’s book on Basquiat. That blog also contains many sad but true tales of Parkstone’s rip-off tactics. I’m just saying think twice about this company.
I’d like to share this with anyone who looks for this name on the Internet: Jean Paul Manzo and his wife Cornelia Sontag owe a lot of money to their former staff, thousands of dollars that they will never pay us. Yes, I’m one of those employees who won’t receive the money. So please, if you apply for a job offer of a company related with this crook, run away from it as fast as you can!
Just in case, Jean Paul Manzo is married with Cornelia Sontag, it’s very likely that she will be the one who contact you, as this crook barely speaks English.
To add to the long long list…I was cheated out of three thousand USD back in 2003. After repeated attempts to get paid I gave up and moved on. It was the only time I was cheated during the five years I worked as a freelance German-English translator.