I got the first email from Moe this morning in regards to the monies he owes me and the team. I haven’t had the time to post all the offending evidence online yet, but it seems to have stirred up a nest of worry even without that, for which I am glad. Maybe I’ll actually get the money I’m owed. As promised, I’m posting all the material regarding this issue to the blog for public record. My replies to his email are inline in red, so I didn’t bother to post both emails separately.
Read on.
Dr. Moe’s email is in black. My responses are in red.
From: Dr. M. ELGAMAL [mailto:melgamal@atiwave.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2008 7:26 AM
To: Tommy Jordan
Subject:
Dear Tommy:
First, I really do hope that you are doing well. Secondly, I must advise you that your publishing trash and untruthful things about me and my company is illegal and harmful to any business. It also is reflective on you, yes yourself, as it is really unwise and unethical. Failure to remove your trash off the web by no later than 2:00 pm EST July 2, 2008 will result in legal actions against you. I don’t want to come to this.
Thank you for your thoughts. Sadly I am not doing well. My father is dying of cancer and I need the funds you owe me in order to be able to help out with the family.
To respond to the rest of your email, actually sir it is completely legal in the USA. Further it is the Freedom of Speech which allows us Americans in this great country the ability to share these thoughts in an open forum. The sad truth sir is that I had to go this far to get your attention and prove I am serious. The contents of my email server are my property and publishing them on the Internet is completely within my bounds as they were sent through my server, not an ATI server. I have never signed a non-dislosure, non-compete, or other document to suggest the contrary.
Many of the others you owe money to from our team simply gave up and said it would be useless to try to get the funds owed to them, and I feel the same way after having tried for over almost two years with no success. Since I have not been reimbursed for the expenses I incurred on your behalf and at your behest, I have had no other means to try to get your attention except to publish this information in an open forum, which I knew would eventually get your attention. The emails I have sent you regarding the subject have been replied to with a sense of “I don’t owe you anything” which is blatantly untrue and left me no other recourse.
While I certainly don’t wish to take this to the level of the courts, I am firmly prepared to do so. I have all my documentation ready, receipts for purchases, and over 600 emails sent from you to me over the last two years in regards to the project. I had to gather all this material for the US Attorney’s office in regards to your pending case anyway, so it was easy to organize into chronological order. I’m sure you’re aware that if we have to go to court over this, a counter-suit will be filed to add the costs of court, attorney’s fees, and other material damages to the amount owed. Additionally, my attorneys have advised me of additional grounds for which I have claim due to being forced to endure interrogation by the federal government at my house, and again twice more in Washington DC. The US Department of Commerce Special Agents left my girlfriend crying in my house because of the threats they made against me, due to my work for you. I have not sought recompense for this but I will do so if this goes to court, which I’m told would result in a much larger settlement than what I have asked for, which is simply what I am owed.
I want also to remind with the following facts:
1. You came to my office in Kenansville in 2006 with Tim asking for work. We agreed to give you work for 45 days. You worked about two years. This was nice
I actually did NOT come looking to you for work. You sought me out, and offered me the job to run your team. I didn’t come asking for a job.
2. You were paid by your previous employer according to you no more than $24,000 annual rate. On contract, I paid you much more than this, and as much as $70,000 annual rate. This is in addition to your per diem rate and travel expenses etc
· Actually, you only ever paid me $50,000 in contracted labor. Please check the 1099 form you issued me for last year for verification. In fact I have the email where you told me you have no idea how much you paid anyone and you needed us to provide you with the correct amounts for our 1099s.
· Speaking of per-diem, you stated repeatedly that we received the US Department of State rate for per-diem.
· I repeatedly informed you that we were being underpaid according to those rates. Your rate of $60.00 per day, and your previous rate of $125.00 per day were never in accordance with the USDoS rates. Please check the United States Department of State web site for further reference on these rates.
3. According to our record and to checks and cash records, we paid for everything purchased for the company.
You spent less than 5% of the time in-country, therefore your records would not be up-to-date. I’m sure you have receipts to show for all those purchases you say you made. I certainly have receipts for everything I have purchased.
4. While in USA, I handed either cash or checks or in some cases you have used my credit cards to purchase items you needed
This also has no bearing on the fact that you owe us the monies mentioned… in fact it has no bearing on anything at all.
5. While in Libya, you were handed cash to purchase some little items and in many cases we arranged to purchase it for you
Again, this also has no bearing on anything. There was very little you purchased for us. In fact the entire reason I’m you owe us money is because I purchased things for YOU and was never reimbursed.
6. In some cases, we paid for lots of your negligence. Example your personal loss of your camera in Libya, we paid you for a replacement. We did not have to but we did to help you
This device was stolen from the office while two of our staff members were currently in the same office. That’s not negligence.. it’s bold thievery. You might not recall that I repeatedly prevented many thousands of dollars of your gear from getting stolen many times.
7. On or around September 2006, I called for a staff meeting in our conference room in Kenansville Office and informed all of you about cash flow issues and said: “I will not guarantee any of you work after two weeks” from that time. I also said “ you are free to look for another job”. In other words, you since that time had no work guaranteed work with ATI. However, I continued paying you even while you were working on the side. I paid your salaries in full even while doing nothing.
· Actually it was October, not September.
· Further, the point of discussion was that you didn’t have the money to make it through until Christmas.
· Myself and my old partner went out and found work for YOUR staff (Mike Clark, Chris Comeau, etc) and got them enough work to make it through Christmas, paying them from our own pockets on jobs we could have kept for ourselves, which I consider to be an extremely benevolent thing to do.
· And actually, you didn’t pay ANYTHING from October until January 3rd, at which point you only paid two of us $3,000.00 not what you had promised us. The only payroll your staff received between October and December was from jobs that I went out and found from my customers and then billed under my company and paid your staff with.
8. I did this because, I thought this would help you and expected nothing in return except your loyalty and to do a better job. Instead on several occasions you refused even many meetings that I called for and at that point I asked Tim to be the PM, remember?.
· Actually, no. I don’t recall not attending any meetings, though I suppose it is possible. Please be specific.
· You asked Tim to be the PM, who was unqualified for the job, and then later apologized when we were in London in the presence of Tom Harris and demanded that I take the PM job back. When I told you I did not want the job back, your told me your mind was made up and I would take charge of the project. I’m sure Tom Harris will gladly refresh your memory on the conversation. It was May 21st, 2007, in the hotel lobby in London. Present were you, myself, and Tom Harris. Your PM at the time was upstairs asleep and you refused to let me go get him to attend the meeting.
The above are just examples of the facts. I want to add more:
1. If you would like to come and present your case and if indeed I owe you money, I will definitely pay you. As it stands, and as per our books, we believe that we owe you nothing. In fact, the books show you us tools, and other things
· I have already presented my case to you many times, documented in email, going back to August 2006.
· Please check the email titled “Past Per-Diem and Expenses Remaining”, sent to you on March 16, 2008 for the list of what I am owed. There is no need for me to “come” anywhere as this matter would be better settled in a fashion that allows for proper documentation of the conversation (ie: email).
· I left all your tools in Libya where they belong. I have multiple witnesses that will verify this. I also have a hand-written journal that shows where each tool was left and what case it was left in. We did this each trip so we would be able to know if any of our tools were stolen. These tools were taken possession of by Mustafa Maana in January of 2008 from Dave McLean in Ras Lanuf, Libya and witnessed by Brian Fisher. I was called that morning to verify it was ok to release your tools to you and I approved the transfer as the majority of them belonged to you, not me, though some of the tools in that list were ours we brought with us.
2. In any rate, I believe it is better to bring forward your evidence to the contrary of the above and we have open mind. If you prove that we owe a dime to you we will gladly pay it.
· I sent you an expense spreadsheet showing each and every expense, the date it was owed, and appropriate interest incurred according to North Carolina statute. If you can show me when you paid for these items, I’ll gladly take them into consideration. Personally, I know these records don’t exist. I have given you receipts, emails about reminders for payment, and repeatedly discussed this with you over the last two years, as witnessed by many of your former team who were often present at the time we had the conversations.
M. El-Gamal, MBA, PhD
President & CEO
Applied Technology, Inc.
+1-910-290-5100 Mobile
+1-888-401-4334 Office Toll Free
+1-910-296-0696 Office
+1-919-882-1771 Fax
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Three cheers for documentation.
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