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…