We retained this firm to find a general manager for one of our companies. We ended up meeting with TJ Fox in the Reston, VA office and he told us about his experience and how he would not only find the right candidate but also verify that this person was who they said that they were. We had TJ furnish references before we engaged Lucas Group in what they called a Container Search. We paid them $22,500 for this search, which is not an insignificant sum for a firm of our size.
TJ presented us with a few candidates and we ended up hiring one of them. As part of our agreement, Lucas Group was to check references and did provide us with 3 people that, according to TJ, sang the praises of him. About 6 months later, after many difficulties, he stopped showing up for work and we terminated him. If this was the end of the story, we would have chalked things up to the difficulties of owning a business and moved forward.instead, what we found out afterward was shocking.
We did a little bit of research and found out that this guy was not who we thought he was. He never had many of the responsibilities that he claimed to have at his previous employers and we don't believe that he has a college degree from like he claimed. More troubling is that he is a drug and alcohol abuser who was only available to work for us because he was terminated by his previous employer for getting caught smoking crack with a prostitute in his office. Once we began to talk with people that were familiar with his background, we learned that it was very well known that he was involved in episodes like this with a number of employers and was a serial abuser of drugs and alcohol. A google search showed that he had been arrested for possession less than 60 days before Lucas Group did its 'background check'.
I brought this to Lucas Group's attention and they gave me some lip service and offered to do another search for us. I asked for my money back and never heard from them again. These guys are simply crooks.
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