david54321
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? NJ
I own a small IT consulting firm. In 2002 a laidoff computer programmer I knew came to me asking for H-1B sponsorship (he had switched to F-1 student visa to keep status) and sponsorship of labor certificate. In return, he promised to bring consulting business to my company so that I could make a profit. I successfully sponsored him for H-1B and started labor certificate petition for him, and he did bring a client he knew to my company. Everyday he traveled to that client site doing consulting service on behalf of my company. The client paid my company and I in turn paid him on w-2 basis and pocketed a profit. After about one year, he told me the client decided to stop using his serivce and he was on bench. I was supposed to continue to pay him while he looked for the next consulting opportunity. However, I later found that he was still working for the same client but diverted the payment to a company owned by his relative. I fired him for cheating.
The employee started a law suite in NJ state court against me and my company right away. He claimed that he was never my employee. Instead he was employee of the client and he deposited his salary in my company so that I could manage his money for him for free. I violated the agreement with him and defrauded him by keeping some of the money for myself. He asked for all the revenue he brought in minus what I already paid him. He would not recognize the money I spend sponsoring his H-1B and labor certificate or the employer portion of medicare/social security tax and unemployment insurance I paid on his behalf. During discovery he refused to produce his tax return to show whether he used the w-2 I gave him. During trial I produce all the invoices he submitted to the client on behalf of my company (with my company's tax id on them), H-1B petition and approval documents, labor certification petition documents (which he signed under penalty of law certifying to immigration authority that he was an employee of my company), the W-4 and W-9 he filled out, and my company's tax return showing that I paid employer part of the medicare/social security tax on his behalf. However, jury still ruled in his favor and order me to pay him what he asked for.
I am in a situation that I made less than nothing by entering into this deal and end up paying tax for someone who claimed was never my employee. The law suit lasted three years, so I have missed the deadline to amend my company's tax return and get the tax contribution back.
I contacted immigration authority and trying to report this issue. They thought I was trying to be vindicative and refuse to investigate.
I contact IRS and ask them if they can tell me whether that person used my w-2 in his tax return -- if he did, that would be indisputable evidence that he considered himself to be my company's employee at that time and I can overturn the judgment based on plaintiff's perjury. However, IRS told me they could not release that information to me.
What can I do? The tax contribution and immigration expense I spent on that person was close to $10K. The attorney fee I incurred for this law suit was another $60K. Maybe jury thought I did not work for that income therefore I did not deserve anything. However, that was the agreement between me and that employee at that time and I did not violate any law by doing that. My company's sponsorship allowed him to stay and work legally in the US at that economy down time. I feel jury obviously ruled against evidence or they did not carefully evaluate the evidence. The plaintiff did not have any evidence to support his claim other than his testimony. Even if what he said was true, he was part of and the beneficiary a criminal conspiracy to defraud the federal immigration authority. How can the state court enforce such a conspiracy against the federal immigration law?
After the verdict I totally lost confidence in the jury trial system -- it is unpredicatable and anything could happen in a jury trial. The legal system in this country allows someone to tell different parts of the government different stories to maximize benefit for himself without getting punished since different parts of government do not talk to each other. That person told the immigration authority that he was my employee to got immigration benefit, he told federal and state tax authority that he was my employee so that he was entitled to tax/insurance contribution from my company, and in the end he went to state court and changed his story so that what would have been a taxable income for him had my company did not get involved now become a tax-free damage since he is a victim of my company now. My company ended up paying for his retirement and paying income tax for profit that has to be returned now that 3 years has passed.
I am going to appeal. However, I heard it is very difficult to overturn a jury verdict. The only hope is to find some legal error the judge made during the trial, which I am not aware of.
Is there still justice for me? If so, where can I find it in this stage? Or has my fate already been sealed and I just need to accept it and move on?
I own a small IT consulting firm. In 2002 a laidoff computer programmer I knew came to me asking for H-1B sponsorship (he had switched to F-1 student visa to keep status) and sponsorship of labor certificate. In return, he promised to bring consulting business to my company so that I could make a profit. I successfully sponsored him for H-1B and started labor certificate petition for him, and he did bring a client he knew to my company. Everyday he traveled to that client site doing consulting service on behalf of my company. The client paid my company and I in turn paid him on w-2 basis and pocketed a profit. After about one year, he told me the client decided to stop using his serivce and he was on bench. I was supposed to continue to pay him while he looked for the next consulting opportunity. However, I later found that he was still working for the same client but diverted the payment to a company owned by his relative. I fired him for cheating.
The employee started a law suite in NJ state court against me and my company right away. He claimed that he was never my employee. Instead he was employee of the client and he deposited his salary in my company so that I could manage his money for him for free. I violated the agreement with him and defrauded him by keeping some of the money for myself. He asked for all the revenue he brought in minus what I already paid him. He would not recognize the money I spend sponsoring his H-1B and labor certificate or the employer portion of medicare/social security tax and unemployment insurance I paid on his behalf. During discovery he refused to produce his tax return to show whether he used the w-2 I gave him. During trial I produce all the invoices he submitted to the client on behalf of my company (with my company's tax id on them), H-1B petition and approval documents, labor certification petition documents (which he signed under penalty of law certifying to immigration authority that he was an employee of my company), the W-4 and W-9 he filled out, and my company's tax return showing that I paid employer part of the medicare/social security tax on his behalf. However, jury still ruled in his favor and order me to pay him what he asked for.
I am in a situation that I made less than nothing by entering into this deal and end up paying tax for someone who claimed was never my employee. The law suit lasted three years, so I have missed the deadline to amend my company's tax return and get the tax contribution back.
I contacted immigration authority and trying to report this issue. They thought I was trying to be vindicative and refuse to investigate.
I contact IRS and ask them if they can tell me whether that person used my w-2 in his tax return -- if he did, that would be indisputable evidence that he considered himself to be my company's employee at that time and I can overturn the judgment based on plaintiff's perjury. However, IRS told me they could not release that information to me.
What can I do? The tax contribution and immigration expense I spent on that person was close to $10K. The attorney fee I incurred for this law suit was another $60K. Maybe jury thought I did not work for that income therefore I did not deserve anything. However, that was the agreement between me and that employee at that time and I did not violate any law by doing that. My company's sponsorship allowed him to stay and work legally in the US at that economy down time. I feel jury obviously ruled against evidence or they did not carefully evaluate the evidence. The plaintiff did not have any evidence to support his claim other than his testimony. Even if what he said was true, he was part of and the beneficiary a criminal conspiracy to defraud the federal immigration authority. How can the state court enforce such a conspiracy against the federal immigration law?
After the verdict I totally lost confidence in the jury trial system -- it is unpredicatable and anything could happen in a jury trial. The legal system in this country allows someone to tell different parts of the government different stories to maximize benefit for himself without getting punished since different parts of government do not talk to each other. That person told the immigration authority that he was my employee to got immigration benefit, he told federal and state tax authority that he was my employee so that he was entitled to tax/insurance contribution from my company, and in the end he went to state court and changed his story so that what would have been a taxable income for him had my company did not get involved now become a tax-free damage since he is a victim of my company now. My company ended up paying for his retirement and paying income tax for profit that has to be returned now that 3 years has passed.
I am going to appeal. However, I heard it is very difficult to overturn a jury verdict. The only hope is to find some legal error the judge made during the trial, which I am not aware of.
Is there still justice for me? If so, where can I find it in this stage? Or has my fate already been sealed and I just need to accept it and move on?