I am a private investigator. Some of my PI friends were not paid for work they did for Piedmont Investigations. There is ample proof that all work was completed very successfully and timely. After many weeks of nonpayment I was asked to assist in obtaining payment.
Long story short; after investigating Piedmont and their activities, I have ample documentation that Piedmont has a wide spread pattern of:
1) advertising services in states in which they are not licensed, in violation of state licensing laws. This also endangers their clients' cases, as information thus obtained can be thrown out of court.
2) Presenting a contract that is rife with loopholes, allowing them not to pay their subcontractors, and in my opinion violating the law by too tightly restricting said subcontractors.
3) Clients are further deceived by Piedmont forcing subcontractors to pretend, and causing clients to believe, that said subcontractors are employees, not subcontractors, and that all work is being done legally and with licenses intact.
4) Office staff is trained to systematically rope in subcontractors to work cases ie: "please help us, this is urgent, you have to do this right now! The check's in the mail ASAP!"; and subsequently deflect subcontractor calls requesting payment, ie: "he's out of town;" "no one else can sign checks;" "we can't take messages'" etc., etc. This goes on for months. Many either have to fight for months or years to be paid, are only partially paid, or are never paid.
5) Several subcontractors have been told that if they tell or fight they will never be paid, implying that they *might* be paid if they hush. They aren't, either way. Others (even, like me, disinterested parties with information but who haven't ever had business dealings with them) are threatened with lawsuits if they tell anyone what they know, even when they are reporting documented facts. (more extortion)
To sum it up, Piedmont is in the business of spending outrageous amounts of money (which they can afford, since they dont pay their subcontractors) advertising to the public investigative services that in most cases they have no legal right to offer. They then offer the cases thus obtained to investigators who are located in the case regions. Some of these "investigators" appear to be affiliated, as is Piedmont, with the International Private Investigators Union (IPIU) (google "IPIU fraud"), and so may also be unlicensed in their states.
Piedmonts contract almost certainly is restrictive to the point that they are violating the law by reporting "subcontractors" when IMHO they are hiring employees. It also is designed with a ridiculous amount of loopholes allowing them not to pay. Even these loopholes are pushed beyond the limit. Several have been told that they will now surely never be paid, as they have complained or asked for help collecting. According to Piedmont to try to collect is a violation of confidentiality. Good Grief. Are doctors who try to collect on medical bills violating medical privacy rights (HIPPA) by doing so?
Piedmont and Caune are being investigated by several states' licensing bureaus, the North Carolina state PI association, licensing bureau, and state Attorney General, last I heard. Do you really want to have them working your case? How well would they do in court as witnesses, when they broke all those laws to do your investigation? If you are an investigator reading this, you should already have made up your mind never to do business with this firm.
0 comments