Chapter 32 : Diana Sinclair
After some discussion with Daniel about Diana Sinclair that night, I could barely shut my eyes for sleep. The possibility of us meeting with Diana made me very excited. Daniel also shared that he was trying to find ways so that we could not only feature her in the next issue, but also to interview her. Oh my God! That was not something I ever thought off! Diana oh Diana!
Diana Sinclair or her real name Diana Johari was born on the 1st of August 1980 in Kota Tinggi, Johore. She was an activist, artist, a producer and last but not least and rarely talked about, she was also a capitalist according to many observants. Who would have thought, a capitalist behind that artistic image. She married Mirza Adam Sinclair in 2004 when she was 24. But the marriage only lasted four years before they went separate ways on the 3rd of June 2009.
Her exploded graphic novel 'Secret Garden' which was sold more than eight million copies around the world had made her name the frequent of the internet and printed media almost every single day. The trilogy graphic novels had received such an attention from the critics, including from the public for their controversial contents that covered around violence, sex, criminal, religion and politics. The novels were published by her own publishing house Babylon Cat Inc that she founded in 2006 in Los Angeles. The publishing of the novels was highly protested in South East Asia as her fantasies in the books involved big names in politic, business, and entertainment industry of the region.
Her personal life was nothing short of a public talk-about as well. Her former husband, Mirza Adam Sinclair was a notable real estate investor in Europe. After the divorce, she was said to be hopping around one after another American athletes, in which that became a favourite topic for the tabloids and bloggers every week. Rumours also had it that she always went back and forth Miami and New York to meet with a number of Gang leaders out there. I could not confirm just how much of a truth these rumours were.
She would be in Kuala Lumpur to promote her latest book and film, called S.O.S. But it seemed like her past controversy with Secret Garden was still not far behind the people here. That had sparked a controversy way before the newest one was even launched here.
As the title proposed, Secret Garden was produced in such a confidential circumstance. Every single person that had a direct or an indirect connection with this book were made to sign an agreement in which they were restricted to talk about it at all, or they would be charged million dollars if found guilty.
However, no matter how strict the book was guarded, some portions had still found their ways to the public, all due to the hackers. A man in San Francisco was said to be trying to sell the sketches to a publishing house in Singapore. According to a reliable source, that man had demanded a minimum of 20,000 USD for the sketches.
Soon as the news broke to her, a representative from the Babylon Cats Inc made a drastic call to the Singaporean publishing company with a threat of a heavy legal action if they had proceeded with publishing the stolen sketches or silently handed them over to another party. Even though they were questioning how Diana managed to get the information about that San Francisco man, they eventually bowed down to her and stopped with their intention. I believed had not the warning came from the Diana Sinclair herself, the publication would not admit their wrongdoing and proceeded with the publishing of the stolen material anyway. Or they might sell them to a third party and come clean about it. But when the call was from a fierce and reputable lady owner of a publishing conglomerate like Babylon Cats Inc. herself- you better answer. Even before that, few publications had suffered consequences for going against Diana's warnings.
Back to the San Francisco man, Diana and Babylon Cats were concerned that had the man still out there and free, he might still try to sell them again and again, in any kind of ways. So, Diana decided to pause the publication of the book, until the man was caught by the police with the help of her private investigators. But it was all could not be done sooner if Diana had not made an advanced move.
She had sent an early warning to every publishing house in Asia as soon as she heard about that man, in hopes that would help tracking him down. The criminal was first tracked down when he was in Jakarta trying to sell the stolen material to a publishing company over there. However, he managed to escape as he quickly boarded a flight back to USA just a few moments after he stepped out of the company. Diana and Babylon Cats quickly made a call to the FBI to better track down the man with his fingerprint left on the vase that he touched in the publishing company. "He must love cactus," an FBI agent jokingly commented.
The Jakarta publishing company then called him and agreed to buy the sketches. By that time, he was already in San Francisco. He was then given an order to fly to Los Angeles and hand out the sketches to an Indonesian who was a con 'editor'
In Los Angeles, FBI agents were already on standby mode together with three journalists from America, Malaysia and Singapore as well as Yasmine Cohen, a private investigator in Hollywood that Diana hired to wait for the criminal to meet up with the Indonesian 'editor'.
Shidee Lee, the name of the criminal, was finally caught when he was dealing with the Indonesian editor in a cafe.
In the mean time, the copies of the sketches have however made their way around Kuala Lumpur, before they were made disappeared with the help of the efficient Royal Malaysia Police and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. Diana's works were estimated to have been sold around 10 million units around the world before this. With Secret Garden, she gained the attention from across the globe, making it one of the biggest book launching internationally. Just on the first week of the launch itself, 500,000 units were sold simultaneously in America, Europe, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.