News Clips & Coverage


Uber Slapped With Worker Misclassifiation Lawsuit

Uber Slapped With Worker Misclassifiation Lawsuit

- Bloomberg BNA
Latest Development: Uber Technologies Inc. faces a nationwide class action alleging the company illegally classifies its drivers as independent contractors and cheats them out of overtime wages and tips.
Potential Impact: The action could compel the courts to clarify whether gig economy companies such as Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, Upwork, Fiverr and Thumbtack can characterize their workers as independent contractors or traditional employees entitled to protections under federal labor laws....

Pharma CEO ‘Reckless’ in Not Disclosing Swiss Account: Government

Pharma CEO ‘Reckless’ in Not Disclosing Swiss Account: Government

- Bloomberg BNA
Claims taxpayer was warned by accountant of illegal conduct Appeal puts government at risk of losing first FBAR disclosure circuit court case The CEO of a pharmaceutical manufacturing company acted recklessly when he failed to disclose a Swiss bank account he owned, and isn’t entitled to a refund on a penalty he paid for his failure, the government said. [more]
Arthur Bedrosian, the CEO of Lannett Co. Inc., was willful in hiding one of two accounts he had at Union Bank of...

Final: Judge Triples Damages against Allied Home Mortgage to $268M

Final: Judge Triples Damages against Allied Home Mortgage to $268M

- Whistleblower News Review
Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corporation has lost a decade-long battle in a verdict that tripled damages from $93 million to $268 million on September 14. United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim, announced an additional judgement of $25 million against Allied Capital President and CEO, Jim Hodge, for False Claims Act and FIRREA violations involving the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance program.
Branch Manager Peter Belli Claims...

4 Takeaways From Hunton & Williams' $34M Stanford Deal

4 Takeaways From Hunton & Williams' $34M Stanford Deal

- Law360
Hunton & Williams LLPhas become the latest law firm to settle allegations that it aided Robert Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme, inking a $34 million deal that would benefit some of Stanford’s thousands of victims.
With Stanford now five years into a 110-year federal prison sentence, ​Hunton's ​big-dollar settlement is a significant step in a swarm of suits that arose from the 2009 collapse of Stanford International Bank and other companies Stanford...

Tele Pay USA actor files class action over allegations she was not paid a minimum wage

Tele Pay USA actor files class action over allegations she was not paid a minimum wage

- Northern California Record
An Orlando woman alleges that she earns less than the minimum wage for her work with a national telephone sex-talk purveyor and has filed a class-action complaint.
Anne Cannon filed a complaint on behalf of all others similarly situated on June 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Tele Pay USA alleging violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff has been employed by the defendant since 2008 as an actor...

Everything you were afraid to ask about phone sex workers – in one class-action lawsuit

Everything you were afraid to ask about phone sex workers – in one class-action lawsuit

- The Washington Post
Phone sex advertisements have long been a staple of overnight television, airing in the wee hours between reruns and infomercials when few people are tuned in.
Anyone who’s clicked through the channels during that time knows the format: A 1-900 number flashes across the bottom of the screen in bold yellow text. The soft-focused video shows a nubile woman sprawled across satin bedsheets, smiling in the candlelight and chatting on a landline. Smooth jazz plays in the background. Call...

Phone-Sex Operators Are Suing Tele Pay USA for Underpaying Them

Phone-Sex Operators Are Suing Tele Pay USA for Underpaying Them

- The Cut
A major nationwide phone-sex purveyor, Tele Pay USA, was hit with a class-action lawsuit in federal court this week for allegedly cheating its contract workers out of compensation. As the Washington Post reports, the lawsuit offers a rare look at how the phone-sex industry operates — and it’s nothing like the cushy advertisements you saw during late-night TV years ago.
According to the Post, a Tele Pay phone-sex worker, Anne Cannon, filed a lawsuit on behalf of a potential...

Phone-Sex Worker Hits Employer With OT, Wage Claims

Phone-Sex Worker Hits Employer With OT, Wage Claims

- Law360
A phone-sex worker filed a collective action against her employer Tele Pay USA in California federal court Tuesday, claiming the company has violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by paying her less than minimum wage, no overtime and shorting her for “off-the-clock” work.
At best, the suit claims, women who talk for Tele Pay, like lead plaintiff Anne Cannon, make $6 per hour. If their average call times drop below six minutes, their hourly rate drops to $4.20 per hour, the suit...

Phone Sex Workers Sue Over Low Wages, Long Hours

Phone Sex Workers Sue Over Low Wages, Long Hours

- The Recorder
Phone sex might be expensive and short-lived for consumers, but it doesn’t pay much for the workers on the other line.
That’s according to a class action filed on Tuesday alleging a California-based phone sex operator misclassifies its “phone actors” as independent contractors, depriving them of overtime pay and “off the clock” work. As a result, the sex talk workers, most of whom are women, are paid below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in...

Phone Sex Workers Sue Over Low Wages, Long Hours

Phone Sex Workers Sue Over Low Wages, Long Hours

- Law.com
Phone sex might be expensive and short-lived for consumers, but it doesn’t pay much for the workers on the other line.
That’s according to a class action filed on Tuesday alleging a California-based phone sex operator misclassifies its “phone actors” as independent contractors, depriving them of overtime pay and “off the clock” work. As a result, the sex talk workers, most of whom are women, are paid below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour in...