Employer Won't Refund Fees Collected at the Start of H1B Employment

[xzbit]

Hi, this is not really an immigration question but I wasn't sure where else to post, so please correct me if Im wrong.

I am currently working in the US (Texas) on an L1B visa with employer A. I was planning to switch to H1B visa through a consultant B. B agreed to file for my H1 if I paid a "fee" of $5250. I was a little desperate cause I had received an RFE on my L1 extension, so went ahead and wrote a check for $5250 in the name of B and signed the offer letter that had my salary and employment details. B said he would first apply for LCA in a week. In the mean time company A decided to file for my H1B since L1 extension might probably get rejected. So I told consultant B to hold back my H1B process (he hadnt filed for H1 at this point) as my current employer A will be filing an H1. So I also requested a refund of the $5250 (or at least $5000).

Now heres the problem, when I first told consultant B about this he gladly told me I need not worry and he would need about 2 weeks to sort things out. So I called him at the end of 2 weeks and now he rarely returns my phone calls. I went to his office after fixing an appointment and he said hes sick and cant make it to the office. During our last brief conversation he was a different person, kind of rude and said some thing along the lies of not being in a position to pay in full or something.

I would like to know what legal action I can take against him, considering the fact that I shouldnt have paid him anything in the first place. For now I would just want to scare him with legalities so I get my money without going to court.

Thanks for reading my case.

Chris

[Mr. Knowitall]

You should not expect that you're going to be able to scare him into giving you your money back. Your most obvious options are complaining about improper fees to the Department of Labor and small claims court.