Several individuals have been the victim of a severe case of hiring fraud and misrepresentation including me.
I put my resume on Career Builder, as I relocated to Port St. Lucie with my family.
I subsequently received several calls from headhunters, one of which was for an "opportunity" with HomeIQ Media Corporation, a subsidiary of the "alleged" Bennett Construction Group.
After a protracted negotiation, I finally signed a contract with Home IQ effective November 1st. I needed assurances that this was the right move since I had several offers and had a wife and two kids to support.
My contract included a base salary and commision guaranteed for six months.
We also were promised a company vehicle, laptop, credit card for expenses and cell phone.
My title was Director of Sales and I was to commute twice weekly to Orlando to get the HomeIQ brand going.
During this time period Lori Bennett also hired two other veteran radio people as a GM and Regional Sales Manager. These were outstanding individuals with over 50 years in radio between them.
Lori then set up a meeting at the Mall of Millinia in Orlando with myself and the new regional person to discuss strategy. The GM was not present as he was relocating from Canada (promised relocation expenses) and had just sold his house. (stay tuned for more on this). We were told that Lori was overwhelmed and that all correspondence moving forward was to be with the new GM.
To make a long story short we were all fired six days later! The new GM who had just sold his house, the new regional person who had turned down four other offers and I who had taken this offer over others were left without a paycheck.
Let me backtrack to explain what we were supposed to do for Home IQ and how research after we were let go, unveiled this very diabolical scam.
HomeIQ Media Corporation started in Ocala and Gainesville, Florida with paid programming on The Sky Radio Station (since suspended since bills weren't being paid and other issues.)
The premise was that the Home and Garden industry was full of charlatans and the Home IQ brand would single out those very "best of the best" companies in that category. Lori Bennett had allegedly been in the construction industry for over 30 years and the alleged Bennett Construction group spun off HomeIQ Media to give legitimate companies an opportunity to separate themselves from the pack through an association with HomeIQ media and their multi-media campaign; radio show, internet presence, newsletter, street fleet of vehicles with HomeIQ Logo and the sponsoring companies logos.in addition, a second wave would include home shows and TV.
We were all to establish Orlando and get the brand HomeIQ going with sponsorship sales to top companies. A promise was made that I would eventually build the Treasure Coast and West Palm Beach since it was closer to my home.
As veteran radio and sales people I believed we started asking too many pertinent questions. Where was the street fleet? How about the newsletters?
We wanted to make sure all was in place before we presented to these top companies.
Part of the hook was we were to tell companies that Bennett Construction Group had just secured a new development and companies would have an opportunity to bid on jobs for this alleged land deal. I have the scripts to substantiate.
This didn't set well with myself and the others included as it looked like we were using the construction angle to secure the media buy. We resisted until we were educated more on the construction angle. All questions to specifics about previous land deals and the new one were met with ambiguity. They said it was confidential.
The scam is this:
There appears to be NO Bennett Construction Group. If you go to the website it is all stock photos and there is NO physical address.
I researched the physical address provided to me on the original Bennett card I was provided and no one occupies that location. The agent said Bennett did for about two months but had left.
I spoke to a REAL Bennett Construction Services in Ocala and they told me they were livid about Bennett as they showed up out of nowhere, duplicated their logo and slogan and received negative feedback as the psuedo Bennett misrepresented themselves as licensed when they were not to consumers they knew.
The hook was Bennet, we believe, was formed to give Home IQ credibilty with those in the Home and Garden industry to solidify a media deal with promises of bids on land deals that are non-existent. This is major fraud!
In additon, they have victimized other people before us with false employment guarantees, uprooting their lives with manipulation and lies.
We have all contracts, saved correspondence and witnesses to this gross injustice. The scam was to hire people for two weeks and hope they made sales. If they didn't they would fire them, slander them to whomever they contacted and keep the meat grinder going by hiring other trusting professionals.
Fortunately, we were able to avert another victim by contacting the original headhunters who called us and telling them to warn off future interested parties.
HomeIQ Media is a major fraud and scam and I pray no one else is duped by this scheme. We hope to get justice as we have already contacted the Ocala police and several news sources.
The only redress Lori Bennett and HomeIQ has is to slander the innocent victims involved and perpetrate even more lies. She had the nerve to tell the Ocala police that she "never hired" the GM even though he has the documents to prove otherwise.
The deceit and deceptions run long and deep and I pray no one else is the victim.
To make it worse, she has involved her young daughter which we believe is a form of child abuse.
There are no boundaries to this twisted scheme.
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