What is most sad about my story is the fact that I knew Frank Lombardi, the self-described CEO of ProAct from childhood.in fact, he at one point was an older brother's best friend. It was this brother that actually got me in touch with ProAct. I should have known something was seriously wrong from the beginning as Frank was telling me he was going to employ my brother in a manner that would best be described as less than legal by the IRS. Fast forward a few months and I was helping Frank recruit a stellar performer to his company for a new project that would be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A price was agreed to for our services and my team went to work and identified a candidate that was far better than anyone he had asked us to talk to re the position he needed filled. My team and I convinced the person to take the job, negotiated her compensation, and even delivered her offer letter which I wrote as Frank said he had no clue what he was doing in that realm. The 1st candidate accepted and within days of joining his company we were being told she was the best person on his team and that his client loved her. We had done our job so well that Frank decided to hire a second unknown candidate we had found, again better than anyone he had asked us to talk to.
Of course that is also when the excuses started flying as to when we could expect to be paid not only for her services but also for a person Frank as me to employ and bill back to him as an independent contractor. Months went by with more excuses and promises of further work. Imagine being in my shoes, a guy I looked up to when I was a little kid was stringing me along with lies and excuses. We actually had to call a client he was working at and threaten to tell their CFO about his shenanigans to get Frank to answer our calls and send us a pittance on what he still owes me.
Frank Lombardi is one of the most dishonest people I have ever come across. He and his silent partner regularly break New Jersey employment and tax laws and laugh about doing it. Karma is a bitch Frank, I hope to see you on the road someday, trust me, I am looking for you.
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