The Lending Foundation, a real estate lending and loan modification agency based in Los Angeles, California, may be involved with an employment scam based on recent employees' experiences with the firms' questionable hiring practices.
New "hires" allege the company lured them in on a Craigslist advertisement for junior loan analysts. Offering a base pay and salary, the potential employees are interviewed, screened at orientation and if accepted for the position, are offered a training period for a week without pay. The training however, according to a recent new hire, involves working the same tasks as an actual, hired employee would do—that is to say, soliciting calls by "interested" parties and in some cases, generating revenue by closing accounts for the company without pay.
In legal terms, at the end of the week the company may choose to release the potential new hire. As there is no legal contract binding the new hire as an actual employee, if the company chooses, it may release the applicant and consequently generate revenue without the requirement of paid employees. Another employee who wished to remain anonymous was, after the end of the week, invited back for another week but was never asked for any documentation, such as a social security card or driver's license, documentation that is typically used for a contractual employment agreement.
In addition, the company runs much like a marketing scheme—focusing entirely on the aspect of making money, how much one can make and how much founders, Jack Soussana, already have. Potential hires also claim that the job advertisement, as well as their supervisors claimed that the calls they make to potential clients are "warm" calls, meaning the potential client has, in some way, expressed interest in the potential loan refinancing and consulting offered by the firm. However, according to the applicants, the responses from potential borrowers do not correspond with the behavior of typical interested clients. "There's a lot of angry people who want on the do not call list or tell us to stop soliciting them, " said one potential new hire.
And even when a customer hangs up in disinterest, the supervisors are eager to call them back. A potential hire witnessed one senior analyst call back a potential borrower to re-attempt his sale. "He said she was going to lose her house, " our source revealed, "then she just hung up on him again."
*Although these are only allegations, this author felt it should be known that red flags continue to pile up against the Lending Foundation. This report was compiled from anonymous new hire employees for the benefit of future potential applicants, who saw it necessary to report the possible misconduct and poor hiring practices within this organization.*
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