"I have a judgment in my favor," says Peyser, who has been without income since. "It's resolved to that point. I don't hold any grievance towards any of those people. I wish them well. I hope they can turn their lives around.
"I always thought that the New Age stood for integrity. But then when I've worked in it all these years, it doesn't mean that at all."
Phung Huynh
Anthony Pidgeon
The preview issue of magazine Solimar.
Details
Related Content
More About
Although Marie Taliaferro has not been charged with any crime, on Sept. 14 regents of the University of California slapped a civil lawsuit on her, her husband Paul, and her daughter Christina, aka Sunni. The suit alleges that Marie embezzled at least $4.5 million, and funneled portions of it to Sunni and Paul. The university has also frozen Marie's $187,000 in retirement benefits. No trial date has been set for the suit. The San Francisco District Attorney's Office is conducting its own separate criminal investigation.
But the allegations don't ring true to graphic artist Julia Stege, who was involved with Wings of Solimar from the beginning, designing its Web site and helping design both issues of the magazine. Stege attributes the demise of the publication to a lack of ad sales and bad timing, and is still close to Sunni. She reports that Sunni is trying to remain open and is "looking for whatever comes next." She feels the charges against the Taliaferros are merely hearsay, and resents the bad press Solimar has received.
"What they need is, they need positive press. They don't need any bullshit," Stege says. "They need people who actually believe in that vision and understand that people are human beings, and we're working under a system that's totally screwy. What they need is somebody who wants to put forward this vision, and put it forward as a positive thing."
What the Taliaferros also need, at this point, is top-dollar legal representation.
Although the San Francisco District Attorney's Office can't comment on its investigation, UCSF attorney Eric Behrens contends that the university has a strong civil case against Marie Taliaferro. He adds that the regents are in possession of "some pretty reliable information" that some of the money that was embezzled went to fund the Wings of Solimar gallery and Solimar magazine.
Marie Taliaferro was no fool about embezzlement, Behrens says, and watched her back carefully.
"She had a fairly sophisticated scheme, and was able to cover up what she was doing fairly well for a number of years," explains the attorney. "The amounts didn't all get taken at once. It involved taking cash, and floating checks -- not depositing checks, yet indicating that she had deposited them -- and later writing off some of those checks as bad debts. All things that appear, on the surface, perfectly legitimate. But eventually it caught up with her, the more money she was taking."
Taliaferro's system was not discovered earlier, Behrens says, for a couple of reasons. There is evidence she may have had some documents shredded to avoid detection. Her cashier's office was somewhat isolated from the rest of the campus, so few people could look over her shoulder. And she and her husband Paul live a relatively normal lifestyle, with no fancy cars or other trappings that would arouse suspicion.
In the course of its investigation, UCSF has begun looking into the financial records of the Solimar businesses. As far as Behrens can tell, it appears neither the gallery nor the magazine ever made any money.
Solimar Inc. apparently has come to a similar conclusion about itself. On Oct. 18, the company finally filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
"The business has been closed essentially since mid-July," allows Solimar attorney James Wood. He declined to talk about the Taliaferros, but says Solimar owes less than $150,000 total, and that the company's creditors include a bank still owed $40,000, magazine subscribers, and a couple of radio stations. All of the company's remaining assets now sit in two storage lockers of a Rent-A-Space in Moraga.
Where a choir of angel children once sang, light fixtures now dangle from the ceiling of the former Wings of Solimar store at 3399 Mount Diablo Blvd. in downtown Lafayette. A few months ago, this room was filled with pixie dust, aromatherapy, and blessings for outer and inner peace. On this day in early October it's gutted, with a fresh coat of white paint. Half-assembled furniture and boxes of the Frank McCourt book Angela's Ashestake up the floor space.
In the middle of this, holding a screwdriver, is Pat Fleming, owner of the Harp & Shamrock Irish gift and collectible shop, which will open here within a week, moved down the street from its former location.
The Solimar folks left the place pretty empty, he says. But the previous tenants still attract an occasional visitor. Mostly, they're looking for money.
"There's a bunch of Irish cowboys in here now!" he exclaims with a thick brogue, and walks off to continue the renovation.
