I was an employee of the Asia Economic Institute and a victim of their unethical, often illegal practices. Some of the practices are simply assennine, rather than illegal.
Here are a few of the practices which you can expect if you "work" for the Asia Economic Institute.
1. Underpaying for time worked - Raymond "refuses" to pay over-time, and yet expects his employees to arrive early and stay late. This is expected in a salary situation, however it is ILLEGAL in an hourly wage situation. If you show up for work 15 minutes late, they will dock your pay. 25 hours. However, if you work late, do not expect overtime. This is illegal. It will happen to you if you work for them.
2. Deducting state taxes, but not paying the state - I was kept off of the payroll for as long as possible so Iliana could avoid paying out State Taxes. These, however, were deducted from my paycheck each pay period. At the end of the year, I owed the State extra money which had already been deducted & never payed to the state or me. They will cut every corner possible to not pay you.
3. Raymond promises pay increases verbally, but refuses to act on them. This is perhaps one of the worst things that can happen to a young recent grad. You are working hard, told you have value, promised a raise, and then an excuse is made.
The same thing happened when some employees were promised health insurance. The promise was not kept and excuses were made.
4. If you are hired, Raymond or Iliana may fire you for no apparent reason within 1 to 5 days. I saw this happen to accounting assistants, as well as content producers. Ask anyone who manages to stick around for a few months and they will back me up. Do not stop looking for work just because Raymond gave you an offer. He always offers everyone a job. He just doesn't keep you around.
After all this, I'd like to air more dirty laundry, because it makes me feel better after all the abuse I suffered at the hand of these robbers & cowards that run the Asia Economic Institute. I have no evidence as to the truth of any of these accusations except my own memory of conversations with Raymond, other employees, and my own perception of their actions.
Allegation #1 - Raymond explained to me that he hires & fires based on race, religion, gender, etc. Raymond told me girls are good for administrative tasks, especially Filipinas, because they do what they are told. Raymond told me not to trust Persians and Muslims. He told me the "blacks" only want to work in entertainment so you should not hire them. This is offensive and illegal. Obviously.
Allegation #2 - Raymond and Iliana are secretly married, but hide this fact very poorly. If you work there for a while and are trying to understand the nature of their relationship, it explains everything except for WHY they hide the nature of the relationship. Trust me, it makes no sense.
Allegation #3 - Iliana and Raymond *MAY* be using the Asia Economic Institute to funnel money out of Iliana's successful structured finance business, into Asia Economic Institute with the purpose to avoid paying taxes. I have no evidence of this, but after working there, you begin to wonder why the company exists in the first place.
Allegation #4 - Iliana and Raymond *ARE* absolutely batsh* crazy. They live in a strange fantasy land in which they are normal, decent people. This could not be further from the truth. Working together, running their business together, living together, the two have become so delusional they think its OK to abuse employees. Furthermore, they are germophobes who spend more time worrying about hand sanitization than managing their little project.
Please keep in mind that this is only one opinion. Many other opinions can be found by searching for Asia Economic Institute on this site if you would like other opinions.
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