Romar Group - Don Polk - Ameru
NSF Payment, Dishonest Business Practices, Abuse ripoff

To this date various employees, business partners, and I have:

I. Disolved any relationship whatsoever we had with Romar and its affliates

II. Recommend to all our personal contacts to dissolve their association with Romar and it's CEO Don Polk

III. Reported it's illegal activies to the Labor Commissioner of California, the Labor Board of California, and to our own personal counsel. We will also be contacting the Better Business Bureau, the IRS, and various media outlets.

Why do we consider The Romar Group, Inc. A Bad Business?

I. Romar has a history of high turnover in the company.in the past two years, the Romar Group, Inc. Has employed over 120 employees. At any given moment, the office only has 15-20 full-time employees on staff.

People leave due to verbal abuse, emotional strain, and most significantly, non-payment of salary.

The Romar Group's employee contract states that an employee will be subject to a "high-stress environment." From this, one can deduce that the "administration" is well aware of the problem yet hires new employees under false pretenses.

At this moment, nearly 15 employees, business partners, and vendors left the company in the last two months (October- November) due to non-payment of salary. Each and everyone has received Non-Sufficient Payment (NSF) or Account Closed stubs from their individual banks on payroll checks and vendor checks issued by The Romar Group, Inc.

Most major banks have red-flagged The Romar Group, Inc. As a "Bad Business Partner" and apt to bounced checks. My own bank holds the check in question for twice the amount of federally regulated time in order to determine whether Romar has money in their bank account.

Romar's own bank - Manufacturer's Bank - in Los Angeles, CA knows Romar by name and will willingly state that Romar constantly issues checks they knowingly cannot cover.in most states, this practice is known as larceny and it is fraud. While an NSF check can be explained away, an Account Closed check cannot.

Shame on you Romar and the people supporting its illegal activities:

CEO Don Polk (dpolk@romargroup.com)
SVP Erika Myles (emyles@romargroup.com)
VP Linda Haithcox (lhaithcox@romargroup.com)
EA Queen Udofia (qudofia@romargoup.com)

Debbie Seibers of Slim in 6
Kerry Gordy of The Gordy Family
NASCAR
Rainbow PUSH
Reverend Jesse Jackson
The Sweet Spot Group (Kevyn Lewis)

II. The Romar Group has not demonstrated that they hold the appropriate licenses to manufacture and distribute garments and promotional merchandise. If you should choose to do business with them, you could also be operating illegally. It is law that they display these licenses at their place of business and that they be made available. Despite requests to see the appropriate licenses, Romar has been unable to produce them.

Romar does not employ a Sales Team and therefore have no avenue by which to garner revenue for your company. Romar has yet to demonstrate a successful "project." Refer to Ryan Kenny, the now successful apparel line under Rocawear. Ryan Kenny sued the Romar Group for failure to adhere to the business contract and for failure in general. Under their new partnership with Rocawear, Ryan Kenny has acheived success and acclaim.

At this date, the Romar Group has never manufactured or designed for a successful private label and only recently employed a technical designer at the suggestion of an individual who is no longer affliated with The Romar Group who was appalled at their lack of a design team for their so-called "design studio" under "Romar Studios." In short, Romar offers services for which it cannot provide.

At this time, the Romar Group does not employ a controller or a financial department. Any "numbers" aka forecasts of success you see from Romar are not indicative of its business or past (unsucessful) efforts. It is widely known within the company that sales forecast numbers, cost of goods and services, and other valid calculations appear from "thin air, " or in this case, from the mind of Don Polk.in short, numbers are made up as they pertain to the business and rarely does an employee really understand how much a bolt of cloth costs considering most do not generally come from a manufacturing or business background.

No one from Romar holds a degree in finance or has a certificate of accounting. Romar does not operate on a budget and none of their departments operate on a budget. The finances of this company can be seen as very suspicious. It would not be surprising if the IRS became involved.

Romar does not have an adequate shipping unit (domestic or foreign) or proven relationships with manufacturers overseas. Without a warehouse, shipping department that can pick and pack, or manufacturing capabilities, there is no way they can be considered a "manufacturer" of mass goods, especially in garment.

Black Enterprise Magazine currently ranks The Romar Group as #38 out of 100 minority-owned businesses in terms of excellence and growth. I would like to point out that Romar did not make the list last year and the "fact sheet" on Romar in the BE site is very short and unverifiable. Searches on Romar before 2000 does not list any information on the company in the public arena as if the company was insignificant or non-existant before then. This could be considered very strange as CEO Don Polk consistently points out that Romar has been in business for the past 26 years. A search on lawsuits that list Romar as a defendent however, turned up multiple hits.

III. I along with various vendors, employees (current and former) and business partners would like to start a class-action suit for bad business practices and for non-payment of issued checks (payroll and otherwise).

I will also be contacting news media that have formerly mentioned The Romar Group to get out the word on The Romar Group and its supporters.

Currently, they are under investigation by the Labor Board of California for knowingly issuing NSF and Account Closed checks to their employees, vendors, and business partners. For asking their employees to wait five (5) days to two weeks before cashing or depositing their checks despite issuing them a check on payroll day. A check issued on a day it cannot be cashed is fraudulent.

Recently, they have been served papers for non-payment on their office lease by the owners of the building where they are currently located.

Recently, the storage unit (the space they claimed to the clients was a "warehouse") has locked out Romar until Romar can pay resitution on bad checks it issued the storage unit.

This is all very suspicious considering that Black Enterprise reported that The Romar Group claimed ninety (90) million in revenue in the year 2003. If that were true, then the above should have never happened. I will be contacting Black Enterprise to ask them why this is so.

Shame on you Romar for giving minority-owned enterprises a bad name. I have utter contempt for the way you do business and for the way you represent the African-American population.

Shame on the "administrators" of Romar - Don Polk, Erika Myles, Linda Haithcox, Queen Udofia - for perpetuating the lies of the Romar Group, Inc. And for never giving a straight answer to your employees, vendors, or business partners.

Company: Romar Group - Don Polk - Ameru
Country: USA
State: California
City: Los Angeles
Address: 837 Traction Ave. Ste. 406
Phone: 2136214403

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