Greg Blackman contacted me via LinkedIn two months ago, asking for information to "hire" account executives because he wanted to nationalize his company. He also stated that he was ripped off from a previous recruiter, and I felt sorry for his current situation. I told him I would take on the recruiting contract, and hire the 35 personnel he requested. We discussed payment several times, however, he started dodging the issue in the first 30 days, I wound up locating 25 agents, and he stated that was enough, and because of my skills and resume, he wanted to hire me as the COO for his national operation.
I agreed, and he said that the requirement was to have these agents trained through Pivotal Payment. I sent him the contract on numerous occasions, and he merely ignored them. I used $1,500.00 of my own money to purchase services and pay some of our people to create sites to advertise our services. I ordered business cards, purchased a job booth, among other things to further his company, and he simply would not discuss payment for the recruiting portion, kept giving me other excuses that they had to start performing and making sales before he would consider payment. Finally, after two months, I resigned from his company, and within 24 hours, every account executive had resigned as well.
He said that he was into merchant services, Pivotal Payments, which I also reviewed Merchant Mavericks, and found horror stories associated with Pivotal.
Greg owed me $2,000.00 per agent, which came up to $50,000.00, and he owed me for working as his COO, which he verbally agreed to $70,000.00 annually. Which would have been about $6,000.00. He refuses to pay any of the monies, and the invoices for the business cards.
The main reason we had issues was because he told us that he made business loans, between 14 and 16%, which we found to be untrue, as the loan that was approved had all sorts of hidden fees, and for a $100,000.00 loan, the payback was to be $139,000.00!! (33% APR)
I submitted a 39 million dollar project for funding, and all he cared about was getting them to the conference call because once they found out that is was a "Cash Advance, " and they would have found out, at that time, that they were obligated to pay taxes at the time of disbursement, (all the verbiage on the documents stated "Loan") they refused to commit. Greg knew that as soon as they were at the conference call, even if they decided not to go forward, they would have been legally obligated to pay him a 2% fee (that came out to $760,000.00) regardless. He simply stated "It is what it is, " with no regard for the client, only the amount he could cheat them out of.
He is a person of no integrity, does not give full disclosure on loans, and project funding, states that they are "Business Loans, " when in fact they are "Cash Advances." I would not have an issue in presenting full disclosure to clients, telling them exactly what they would be obligated to pay, for use of our money, however, Greg would not disclose anything until it was time to sign documents, basically, holding them hostage to use the money.
This is no way to run a business, and no way to treat people, simply because they are searching for loans. That is why I resigned and why if anyone reads this, run if you see him coming, he will lie to you, and try to make you obligated, in every way, and then present the 25-35% loans.
I have no way of recouping my losses, however, I, and the other 25 former agents, will be filing grievances with the BBB, and the attorney generals office in California, that way maybe someone can not allow him to do this to other people.
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