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Tony Caulfield Q & A 2008, Part 1: What Happened to "Gery
Greene" and the "UVL Filmproduction International" Scam?
by Tony Caulfield,
15.03.2008
This is a sequel to the article Info
on the "UVL Filmproduction International" Scam run by "Gery Greene" and "Dr. Maurice
zu Buehren", published on Tony Caulfield.com on August 5, 2006.
Many
of you have been asking me whether I have an update on these issues and some were
so nice to inform me about what they had found out after my first "Gery Greene"-related
article was published. Thanks! Today, I'd like to try and answer some of your
questions by sharing all the info I was able to gather since then.
Mentioned
article deals with an alleged "film production company" run by either several
individuals or - more likely - just one person using different aliases, such as
"(Dr.) Gery Greene" and "(Dr.) Maurice zu Buehren" who, back then, had contacted
numerous actual members of the film industry, expressing interest in collaborating
with them on various projects. Most of these said "projects" allegedly involved
actor Keanu Reeves, whom "Gery Greene" claimed to be a close friend, business
partner and co-owner of "UVL Filmproduction International".
Around that
time, some friends of mine, several people I worked with back then, as well as
myself had also been contacted by this person naming himself "Gery Greene". Some
strange behavior on his part during our long phone calls and a lot of unverifiable
claims (that should have been easily verifiable, given that these claims included
having been involved in medium to big budget movie productions some of which had
already been released, like e.g. The
Lake House led me to believe that something was not right about all this.
Exchanging thoughts with my friends and colleagues, I soon found out that others
shared this impression, so a couple of friends and I started to investigate and
contact people who would know for sure whether "Gery Greene" was telling the truth
or not.
Amongst other industry professionals, I also contacted Keanu
Reeves' agent Kevin Huvane of CAA, as well as Erwin Stoff of 3Arts Entertainment,
one of the producers of "The Lake House" which "Gery Greene" had claimed to have
co-produced. It turned out that neither does Keanu Reeves have anything to do
with "Gery Greene", nor were the latter or his company in any way involved in
the making of "The Lake House".
The following days, all others of the
more relevant claims made by "Gery Greene" were proven to be false and we started
to warn our immediate contacts who proceeded to warn their contacts and so the
facts about this scam spread rapidly and soon appeared on film industry related
internet forums and other kinds of media. More and more people came forward, not
only from Germany, where "Gery Greene" had claimed his "company" was based at
the time (the address given on his website also proving to be fake) but also from
throughout the U.S. and even from Italy, stating that they, too, had been deceived
by "Gery Greene" and his accomplice or alias "Dr. Maurice zu Buehren".
Since my name had come up a lot in association with what was actually the effort
of many people trying to prevent ever more artists from falling victim to this
scam, I received a lot of mail back then, asking about the "Gery Greene" case.
So I published the abovementioned article
as a summary of all I knew about the case at the time, for everyone to get informed.
Ever since that article was published, I keep receiving
e-mails about "Gery Greene", both questions about details (not all of which I'm
able to answer, unfortunately) and new info about that scam apparently still continuing
in spite of the facts being out for the public to see. A young lady from a "Keanu
Reeves Community" has been so nice to inform me that "Gery Greene" - now using
the name "Dr. Gery Greene" has launched a new "company" named Greene-Filmproduction
International and is already starting to post new "press releases" on websites
that publish any information without verifying it, such as here
and here
and here.
So I decided to publish this sequel which hopefully might provide some further
insight and maybe shed some light on what might motivate this man naming himself
"Gery Greene" to continue posing as a producer allegedly being involved in projects
he provably has nothing to do with at all, respectively collaborating with artists
who provably don't even know him or ever heard of him.
Honestly, from
some of what has chanced after that first article was published, I have come to
think that this whole, exceedingly strange "Gery Greene" episode is rather sad
and tragic on "both sides". Undoubtedly the tragedy is suffered by the artists
and their families that have been deceived by "Gery Greene", some of them wasting
a lot of time on developing ideas and even treatments for projects "Greene" and
his "company" had expressed interest to produce. I vividly remember a mail I received
by a caring Dad of a young actor who lived for several months in the hope of starring
in a "UVL production" alongside Keanu Reeves, whom "Gery Greene" claimed to be
both a dear friend of his and a business partner. He wrote that this whole affair
was "emotionally devastating to our family."
The pain and harm "Gery
Greene" caused to many cannot be eased by somehow being put into context with
his apparent state of mind; however, I hope that sharing some insight on the latter
might at least help to understand why all that went down might have happened that
way and why "Gery Greene" apparently still strives to publicly pose as someone
he factually and provably is not...thereby becoming a tragic character himself.
On September 27, 2006, I received an e-mail by "Gery Greene" (now naming
himself Dr. Gery Greene) in which he informed me that he was to file "the most
expensive claim for damages that Germany has ever seen" against me, followed up
by charges pressed by "the American side". He demanded that I "recant" the provable
facts I had published about his fraudulent company until October 20, or else I
would "meet all my good friends in court".
On top of that he claimed
that his "friend" Maurice zu Buehren had committed suicide as a result of my "false
claims",...long after it had already been proven that "(Dr.) Maurice zu Buehren"
- a name that had been in the news a while before the "UVL" scam in connection
with another fraudulent company that had ripped young school kids off their money
- had been either just another alias of "Gery Greene" or one of the names "Greene"
had invented to be listed on several websites as his collaborators - all names
of individuals that were either not the people he claimed they were (i.e. film
producers, directors, etc.) or not existing at all.
I wondered why anyone
who should long have comprehended that his scam was toast, his claims having been
proven to be lies beyond any doubt, would attempt to "silence" me with threats
of a lawsuit that so obviously wouldn't succeed in anything else than even increasing
the publicity around this man's own false claims. The only two possible explanations
for such conduct that came to my mind were that either this man thought I'd be
even stoopider than I actually am and would start to doubt what I know to be the
proven facts,...or that he was a true believer of everything he had claimed so
far, in his press releases, on his websites, during personal phone calls.
"Gery Greene", a "smart"
con man trying to play "insane" to avoid prosecution after his scam was brought
to the attention of people who could sue him for everything he has? Or, in fact,
a mentally ill person suffering from a severe psychosis that makes him believe
that everything he claims were the actual facts?
If the latter held true
he couldn't even be labeled a "liar", since lying presupposes consciously claiming
something oneself knows to be false. And, at the end of the day, acting in accordance
to what he truly believes would even make "Gery Greene"'s activities look noble:
trying to give young actors and newcomers a chance to star in big budget productions
alongside already renowned artists.
Moved by these considerations, I
did some further research on "Gery Greene" and found something I hadn't seen at
the time I had written that first article about his fraud. A webpage
showing a photo of Keanu Reeves with a blonde lady taking a walk on the beach
of Malibu on a sonny Saturday. Below the attached article, comments were posted
by users. Three similar ones were signed "Gery Greene" and "Gery", reading: "Keanu
and me on the beach, it w a funny time like always, thanks, Gery".
These
comments had been posted on September 7th, 2006 - after "Gery Greene"'s false
claims had already been exposed. I still wasn't totally convinced that this wasn't
just some "trick" of the man naming himself "Gery Greene" to pose as a mentally
ill person in an attempt to somehow escape the trouble he got himself in by these
false claims and bizarre activities that could only have lead to the belief that
his intentions were fraudulent. However, I though it would be a complete failure
to stick to basic ethical standards if I attested the man consciously malicious
intentions as long as any other explanations for his actions could be assumed.
In addition to having been brought up to adhere to these standards and personally
feeling that doing so is categorically required, this situation to be decided
on came into my life when I was still in the process of writing Du
mußt sühnen - Dokumentation eines psychologischen Mordversuchs ("You must
expiate - Documentation of a psychological murder attempt"), a non-fiction book
dealing with an attempt of a woman I had loved dearly throughout many years of
my life to use my own psychological instability at that time for an inexplicable,
unmotivated psychological attack against me, involving the spreading of lies amongst
people I worked with at the time, attempting to file charges against me based
on false allegations (to no avail) and even getting one of my now former friends
to visit me at the hospital where I was treated for the depression this terror
had resulted in, to try and make me believe I actually had committed some unspecified
crimes against this lady and now had to "expiate".
My thoughts were still
revolving around what had happened and about how one could become so cruel and
characterless to use someone's obvious psychological problems as a chance to emotionally
destroy that person for no explicable reason, instead of doing what every sane
and sensible person would do: trying to figure out how to help. In "Gery Greene"'s
case I was determined to do the latter; anything else - even just ignoring him
while knowing that there might likely be some serious psychological problem -
would have made me feel not only failing to live up to my own standards but also
assuming the role of the cruel, unjustified "attacker" that the first love of
my life had assumed, giving a nightmarish, surreal example of what could become
of a formerly lovable person of once strong character and personality. Becoming
a cruel, unfeeling person myself would have meant losing my own personality/identity
as well, and with that everything that still kept me alive and sane at the time.
So I wrote a long e-mail to "Gery Greene", the content of which I don't like
to quote here in detail as this was a personal letter to someone whose life has
quite probably been rather tragic. Summarized, I signaled him that I take him
seriously, that I accept that he might really believe his false claims to be true
and, in that case, were neither a liar nor a malicious person. The rest centered
around the difference between what I call "individual reality" and its incoherence
with the "factual reality" that is empirically proven to be valid. I also gave
him a link to an easy-to-read text on psychosis
and addressed some points that I thought might illustrate to him why I believe
he might suffer from one.
The article on psychosis is in German; it's
the language "Gery Greene" knew to use quite accurately while his knowledge of
the English tongue clearly wasn't anywhere near the level one would have expected
from someone who has been actively co-producing medium to big budget Hollywood
movies since many years and having lived in the U.S. since recently, as he had
claimed. It was one of the many things I tried to draw his attention to, hoping
he would feel motivated to compare some of what he (probably) believed to what
he could become aware of about himself and his life if he were open to see and
accept it.
In the end, I even urged him to go ahead an sue me, so his
apparent psychological problems would get known to the lawyer he would have to
consult, hoping that this person would recognize "Gery Greene"'s condition and
somehow get him to seek expert help. Since nobody had an authentic address (or
the true name) of "Gery Greene", that was the only way I saw to get hold of him
and try to help him.
I sent him that mail on September 29 and received
a reply on October 4th, stating that he appreciates my "well-meaning" mail but
that "the facts are different". If I were interested to learn the facts I should
give him my private phone number and that he were looking very much forward to
talking to me on the phone. That didn't sound like a good idea to me at all. In
case he was really just a con man after all and would threaten me or my family
on the phone if I didn't "recant", I would have to strike back but at the same
time lack any evidence admissible in a German court which usually doesn't accept
a taped conversation (if the caller doesn't know he's being tabed) as evidence.
And in case he was really suffering from a psychosis, I found it much better if
I had something in hand I could show to him at some latter point, to illustrate
that he had really made provably false claims he needed to compare to "factual
reality", for some psychotics don't remember what they have said or written a
while ago.
So I responded that I wanted to continue the conversation
with him but only in written form. He rejected that, saying that he would now
"have this matter sorted out in court". I never heard from him again personally
and never read anything about him until people started to mail me about "Gery
Greene" having distributed new "press releases" and put up this new website linked
above.
It's understandable and fully justified that people worry about
this scam still continuing. But, frankly, I don't think the continuance of this
fraudulent "company" (consisting of no more than a website, as it seems) does
currently pose a serious threath to anyone. The very moment "Gery Greene" starts
actively trying to deceive members of the film industry again, these artists will
inevitably come across the many warnings that are out there since this scam was
uncovered around July 2006.
As things are now, anyone who does no more
than the absolute minimum of proper research after having been contacted by "Gery
Greene" (being the name he's still using) or having come across his website or
his self-posted announcements on "free, unvalidated press releases for everyone"
sites, will find the actual facts quite easily and quickly via google and other
search engines (the article on Tony Caulfield.com being one of the pages appearing
amongst the top search results when it comes to "Gery Greene" checking). The info
is out there for anyone to see and will hopefully prevent anyone from being fooled
by "Gery Greene" again and waste a lot of time, energy and hope on what is either
lies or true belief in something not at all in tune with factual reality.
Whatever it is that motivates "Gery Greene" to continue, it will sooner or
later lead to someone once again informing the people "Greene" falsely claims
to collaborate with. If that should result in charges being pressed against "Gery
Greene", I assume that experts would be consulted to evaluate whether the man
naming himself "(Dr.) Gery Greene" is factually suffering from a psychosis and
merely acting according to what he believes to be true, or just an unscrupulous
"con artist" trying to evade prosecution and/or punishment by simply "playing
insane".
I personally consider it possible, judging from what I read
from him, that "Gery Greene" is mentally ill and truly believes to be friends
with Keanu Reeves, to be involved in certain movie projects, etc. And if that's
true I hope he'll get help with his psychological problems one way or the other
and manages to wake up to "factual reality" again, realizing that he might still
be able to achieve something constructive in "real life", instead of continuing
this living inside an imaginary world, leading him to engage in activities that
have already brought pain upon artists and their families. But whether that IS
true or not, I cannot tell...and probably we'll never know.
If anyone
of you has further questions or new info regarding "Gery Greene", you're welcome
to mail me if you like. However, as far as questions are concerned, I'm afeared
I don't know more about the topic than I relayed in this and the abovementioned
preceding article Info
on the "UVL Filmproduction International" Scam run by "Gery Greene" and "Dr. Maurice
zu Buehren".
Unfortunately, in real life "the truth behind it all"
is not always being uncovered in the end.
Part
2 of the Tony Caulfield Q & A 2008 will center around your questions concerning
my second book Du
mußt sühnen - Dokumentation eines psychologischen Mordversuchs ("You must
expiate - Documentation of a psychological murder attempt").
Part 3 will
deal with your questions regarding my upcoming projects.
Stay tuned.
Love & Peace,
Tony
Writing
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