Gitmeid Law Review

1. I had been hired to work for Liberty Lending, LLC. as a Financial Sales Consultant in July 2018. I quit my job two days back in August 2018 due to the fact that I found out that the company was running an illegal operation. National Debt Relief and Liberty Lending have the same owners and they are running a scam where they refer people from their National Debt Relief program and Gitmeid Law Debt Relief program to Liberty Lending to get an “express debt settlement loan” which is supposed to help the customer graduate their debt relief program within an estimated 90 days. The only problem is that oftentimes this promise never comes into fruition because of the crazy high settlement amounts that some customers may get. Our sales pitch was contradictory. Telling people that they can expect to pay close to a certain amount, but right after that telling them that the final amount of the loan would depend on exactly how much the accounts would settle for. We were told in training to say that the loan even after it is booked is still “pending the customer’s approval”, meaning it would not go through unless all offers were approved by the customer first. This is a lie. The customer is held responsible for the loan regardless after it is booked and canceling it would have a negative impact on their standing with their creditors and the debt relief program they were in. Also, since there is a possibility that the settlement amounts can be significantly higher than the 50% estimate of the loan we provide the client with, it is also a lie that no matter what the final loan amount will be very close to the estimate provided. I only came to find out about these lies two days ago. Some agents on the floor still do not know. Others that have been with the company for a while know and lie to keep their job. How did I find out about these lies? I made the mistake of putting the wrong note on a customer’s account saying that she definitely wanted a loan thinking she was a completely different customer. Later I realized my error but decided to leave the note because that particular customer hung up on me before clarifying if she wanted the loan

2. or not. I tried to call her back but got no answer. I also knew that even if the loan got booked, she could cancel it at any time, so I did not worry about the wrong note too much. The customer ended up making a complaint and at that point, I got coached in a very threatening manner by my manager Clearson Martin, who used to work for Wells Fargo and my Team Lead Serge Kassangana. Clearson kept playing my phone call with this customer over and over again trying to get me to admit that I knew for sure that the customer did not want the loan. Which I refused to admit because that just wasn’t true. After I tried to figure out why it was such a big deal to begin with that I left the wrong note by mistake, Clearson confessed that when the customer gets settlement offers from their debt relief program, they are not made aware that these settlements are a part of the loan. Also, Clarson informed me that the customer has no option to cancel out the loan once it is booked. He told me that they have me on a recorded line stating otherwise and that I am the one that will look guilty if I complain to authorities. They threatened me and told me that the operation was not illegal even though in order to convince the client to accept the loan offer it is necessary to make them think that the loan will not go through unless they approve all of their settlements and that their total loan amount would be something close to the estimate we give them. If the agents were honest with the customer about these terms, they would have no business. Who in their right mind will sign a loan knowing that the amount of the loan can be infinitely high and that once the loan is booked they are obligated to take it no matter what? In fact, to agree to such terms a customer must be crazy! So to make the long story short, once they told me all of this and threatened me I told them I am quitting and that I will not deceive people who are already struggling financially for a living! Some of these customers are so poor that they cannot even pay their light bill. Some of them have no access to the internet, and others are elderly people who are about to retire. I am morally opposed to such practices and have quit my job because no money in the world is worth sacrificing your reputation.

3. As I was leaving there in tears, I had told them that my credit score was 436, I had no savings, no access to credit, no friend or relatives that could help me. I am also not in the best of health at this time. I am about to be evicted from my apartment because I cannot afford to pay the rent. I would never just quit my job without having a backup, but I had no choice because I could not stay there one more minute knowing the illegal shit that was going on. I did not want to go to prison! I would have never accepted the employment offer if I had known that in order for me to keep the job, I would have to scam people and tell lies on the phone. The job was completely misrepresented to me during the interview process. I was told that this was a soft sales job, where it would be mostly customer service based. They said I would have an unlimited number of leads to call every day and that I would not have to compete for leads with other agents. This could not be further from the truth. When I got on the line, most days I had just one or two calls at the most. They required me to convert at 70%, although the type of clients we receive are mostly not qualified for the loan in the first place because they simply cannot afford to pay. These people are in debt for a reason! Many people that call in cannot even afford to pay their debt relief program, let alone a loan. Michael Akulov told us in training that “every customer we get can benefit from this loan”. However, I find that no one can actually benefit from this loan because it is a complete scam. The debt relief program is also a complete scam because they charge people for a service that they can easily do themselves. When I came home I fell into a depression. I cried uncontrollably for hours on end. I am going to be homeless within a few days. I contacted my fellow co-workers by email and linked in letting them know about the illegal practices and threats that were going on in the company. I had also advised that I was going to take legal action. The company still owes me for unpaid wages and overtime. I never got paid any commission, although I booked over $200,000 worth of business. Today I was at the doctor’s office getting my blood work done and as the needle was going in I got a threatening Cease and Desist Demand Letter telling me not to spread lies

4. about the company and that they were going to sue me for damages. I have replied to them that I dare them to take a homeless person to court and that I want them to pay my legal fees. In the end, I do not respond well to threats and if anyone is doing anything illegal it is them! They are the ones that will go to jail. What hurts me the most out of this situation is that my main supervisor, who is the Vice President of Sales at Liberty Lending, Michael Akulov, did nothing to help me. He is from the former Soviet Union just like me and we have a very similar educational background. I never thought that he would be okay with this kind of antics. However, as it seems this man has sold his soul to the devil for a fat paycheck. I have asked my fellow co-workers to help me with a donation to help pay my rent so I do not end up on the street. I got not one dollar. The company did agree to mail me the remaining $100 or so that they stole from my last check. Well, this does not exactly help me much, does it? I just came home from the doctors’ office. I cannot afford to buy food so I did not eat all day and they drew a lot of blood out of me. I have a big headache because I had to walk several hours in the heat since the doctor is far away from me and I cannot afford to pay for public transportation. Tomorrow I am going to visit my local police department and see if anyone can help me with this matter. I am tired and no longer know what to do and where to turn. This company hires poor students like me and threatens them into submission in order to have them do the company’s dirty work. Maybe at one point, Mike was just like me. Maybe he was a poor graduate student who just wanted to make some money. Maybe he just went too far and later realized he no longer could get out. I feel for him, but I now have to do the right thing and go to authorities because no one at Liberty Lending has done right by me. I come from an abusive home and just left an abusive marriage. I had been abused and treated badly my whole life. I had worked very hard to improve my situation. I just found out that I graduated from my MBA program in Finance with a 3.9 GPA. I have a career ahead of me and my integrity is important to me. I might be poor and almost

5. homeless, but I am a person too. I am going to do everything that I can to fight this situation till death! 2018 is the year of Karma and God willing everyone will get what they deserve! I am also Jewish and I answer to a higher authority! Alina