Staffing company owners sentenced to federal prison for wire fraud
Posted August 15, 2018
Two former owners and operators of an Atlanta-based job-staffing company, who used fake online job postings to lure hundreds of job-seekers into paying for needless pre-employment certification training, have been sentenced to federal prison for wire fraud.
From August 2015 through October 2015, the defendants operated a fraudulent job-staffing company in Atlanta, and used Indeed.com and ZipRecruiter.com to advertise available jobs in the housekeeping and maintenance industries that paid above-average wages. The ads falsely represented that the staffing company had existing contracts with commercial cleaning companies throughout the Atlanta area; that the jobs paid above-average wages; and that the staffing company could place its clients in these high-paying jobs.
When applicants were interviewed by the defendants and other employees of the staffing company, they were told that they had to pay $349 for certain Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training prior to being hired. They also were falsely told that federal law required housecleaning and maintenance workers to take the OSHA General Industries Course before starting work in the advertised jobs. Hundreds of applicants paid the $349 fee and took the OSHA course as required, but none of them received the high-paying jobs they were promised.
The company eventually disbanded in mid-October 2015, although the defendants continued operating other fraudulent job-staffing companies.
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