Feds sue auto repair shop owner

LOL what an idiot. Never make yourself a target for the Feds. Acted like a jerk, bragged about it, and now has more trouble on his hands than he could possibly imagine. I hope he pays his lawyer in something other than pennies.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/feds-sue-auto-repair-shop-paid-former-employee-pennies-rcna11339

I don't see where the Feds have a case, they are not the injured party. The employee got paid. Was the guy a dick? Yep, is there a law against that? Nope.

Did you read the article? The shop owner is alleged to have broken several federal labor laws. The feds aren't after him for paying in pennies. Refusing to pay his former employee (initially) got the feds foot in the door. Now they're going to keep digging.

I agree. The charge that the former employee was discriminated against by being paid in pennies as retribution? Good luck making that stick. The failure to pay OT? Now that's something different but totally unrelated to the pennies.

I read it, you missed the part where the DOL told the owner how much he owed and the owner overpaid it. The rest is just typical legal system piling on BS.

Right. However, this is something that very likely could've been handled easily and quietly had the DA not made a huge production out of it. "Look at me, I paid a guy in pennies and badmouthed him because he dared to complain!" Knowing that the Feds had already had a complaint filed, Mr. DA should've paid up, called his attorney, and let this play out. If you give someone a reason to come after you, you'd better not turn around, because they're coming.

I think they want to show publicly what a [censored] he is.

It’s called karma.

Labor laws exist for a reason and it's nice to see action once in a while. As far as the shop owner, there were better choices what to do for sub-par employees.

Having worked with the Feds on a couple of big white collar cases - I can tell you they only want to go after the cases where they have at least a 90% chance of winning while getting some good press in their favor - they are publicity whores and will use the press to ply their case!

Many years ago I dropped off a Jeep in a small Kansas town that had one bank.
I texted ahead to confirm the owner would have payment
available in cash - the owner texted back he was leaving less than he owed me.
He claimed he didn’t have the money.

After a few more messages back & forth he said he
had come up with the rest of the money.

I arrived to find that he left a large paper grocery bag of dollar bills with
his secretary - she was embarrassed and offered to help
me count it - I told her no problem I would take the bag.

I dropped off the car and went to the only bank in town.
Two of the three employees spent 10 minutes sorting
and counting the money - then converting it to large bills.

They were pretty pissed off at him because earlier
that day he had taken up their time getting a large
amount of money in bundled dollar bills at the bank.

It was not the first time he had done this …


Jim

that story reminded me of when i sold my 38 plymouth coupe.
that was a really fun hot rod, 360/727/3.91 8 3/4 rear, and i didn't have much money in it.
a local guy kept coming around bugging me about buying it, but i didn't want to sell.
one afternoon he showed up, and after a few beers, i figured i would get rid of him once and for all.
i shot out a really stupid price, knowing he wouldn't pay that for the car.
four or five weeks go by, and he shows up one day with a paper grocery bag. inside, was 20's, 5's, 10's, and 1's ! this bag was FULL of bills !
he said lets count it out and make sure it's all there.
sure enough, after arranging all the bills in an orderly fashion and counting them, there was the ridiculous amount i had spouted out weeks ago !
well, since i'm a man of my word, the car was sold.
after he got the car home, he spent over two grand for tires and wheels, then pushed the car in the corner, where it sits today.
i should have taken a picture of that bag of cash ! it was the most cash in one bunch i have seen in my entire life.