Financial Suicide

At age 57 one should research to make sound decisions when making a career move … right? I was approached by a board of directors and recommended by friends of the family (a one on the board) to accept the position of President/CEO for a building products recycling and plastics company in Chicago. My background is strong in the field and it appered to be a no-brainer.

 This led to an in-depth due diligence discovery and attorney’s consent so as not to commit financial suicide at my age, with a 3 yr. contract. Deal done and I am safe if all hell breaks loose, right? The 2 groups were a fraud and into the real estate and tax credit advantages more than the business which really took off in this new “green built” world. They never funded the business as promised after I saw and signed the notes. In fact they tried to slip past the bank funding and take more cash out. Busted! And this really hurt the company’s progress.

It is just too long to go in to any more detail and I think you have heard this all before. After a 2 day meeting and assured if they did sell the company I would not be unemployed and given a substantial severance package in the event that would happen. BS! They not only sold the company 2 weeks later; we were all booted in mid-afternoon from our desks without final paychecks, insurance, and even withholding the 401K monies.

The business moved out of state and now the developers are paying a very high price for the property. All in the plan from day one, good guy bad guy roles and we all got stuffed. A calculated and cavalier bunch of crooks. My original attorney at this point is no help so I have contacted a very tough one to help with the 19 months balance I have on my contract. I am taking steps to get these guys legally through the IRS and OSHA as they deserve a visit from the business practices I have lived.

Life moves on from stumbling stones to stepping stones … and the job search goes on. I am now in the moving and furniture business, a little humor in a very tough time. Yes I am moving somewhere and selling all of our furniture to live as well as the house. Oh yes, I forgot they forced me to move 90 miles closer in the first 6 months and we did according to the contract and now have a new home for only ten moths for sale. Ok … next victim! As Harry Carey used to say at the Cubs games, “Let Me Hear Ya” Have a Great Day, Shaun

Tags: due-diligence, financial-suicide, fraud

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Our stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.