Wrongful termination and charged with unauthorized overtime

[nwtflogan]

i am looking for help here for a relative, long story short here, they wer the office manager for a family run company for over 23 years, took care of everything from payroll to invoicing and all bills. both parents basically left the company about 6 years ago and left it for the brothers to run who have stold from it blind including the one parent as well, my relative kept files in the office for the thousands and thousands of dollars that were spent on personal items such as house goods a small business venture for the one sons wife and numerous other things, over the last 10 years or so our family has always helped out with things for them, being in the car businees if the fathers wanted new trucks they told my relative to call me and get it handled heres what i want. bam its done.
they were having huge software and computer problems and hired a company to take care of the issues for over 15k.
soon after they had problems again, so they asked my relative if her son who is a computer junkie if he knew how to handle the problem and yes he did.
so he comes in after work and basically rebuilds the entire system for them and stays on top of any problems they have for them when one of the sons has a problem he tells my relative to call him and bam its fixed.
hes done this over the course of years, now keep in mind hes doing this as favor till the fathers say when they were still there to make sure hes paid for his time, so he says 25.00 hr. no problem, now keep in mind he makes 50.00 hr at his own job during the day.
so in the last few years one of the original parents of the company goes south and only stops in to get a profit sharing check every once in awhile.
but while hes gone the one son is robbing the company blind and his father as well thousands and thousands of dollars in checks are given to them and when my relative asks if the other father new they say yea he said ok. well they are the boss so its done, finally my relative cant take it when the other father comes for a check and surprise theres no money right now, well its in the new houses and toys.
now the one son nows my relative is about to let all the skeletons out about how him and his father are sticking it to the other father, and the son finds the file with all the reciepts of his non company purchases.
my relative is fired and a company is brough in to go over the books, 2 weeks later my relative is arrested for theft of 62k over 2 of the last years time they were there over 40k of it was checks made out to my relatives son for computer repairs, now keep in mind thats also parts as well, and he always gave them a bill for it for them to keep,
the other 20k was for overtime,
the one son says overtime was never authorized and my relative who did computer work hasnt been there in 2 years.and the work was never authorized ABSOLUTE BULL, my relative got a attorney and hes tellin them to take the first time offender program and pay the 60k back because if they go to court people at the company may say i think he was there on such and such a date but they probably cant be 100% SURE OF THE EXACT DAY, and he says we know the brothers already lied so they will lie on the stand, now understand for over 23 years all the bills she paid and everything was never authorized it was expected to be taken care of and it was, i think this is payback before my relative went to the other partner to tell them, as for the overtime my relative was told years ago to pay herselfo for overtime because she was always there making sure it ran smooth, in the investigation we knew nothing as well the money, and when they asked on tape if the overtime and work was authorized she said no there was never any kind for authqorization process they tell me to handle it and its handled.
please help me find a attorney to handle this her attorney is good but hes basically telling her it her word against theirs and they can win.
HOW CAN THEY MAKE HER PAY ALL THAT MONEY SHE NEVER EVEN RECIEVED,even the attorney says that he thinks this came about because she was going to go to the other brother to tell hem to watch his back and they were scared so they did this to blame some of the money missing on her.
and also dont forget this so called unauthorized work and overtime was going on for alot longer than 2 years as well as the overtime and that apparently isnt a prob.
ther has to be a attornry thats dealt with this , i am losing all hope in the judicial system when people like this can prosecute you based on their word over yours because you were just and employee
PLEASE HELP GET ME TO SOMEONE THAT HAS DEALT WITH THIS.;
BASED ON ALL MY RELATIVES JOURNAL THE ATTORNEY TOLD HER TO WRITE WHEN THIS STARTED HIS LATES COMMENT WAS
"LOOKS LIKE YOU WERE WORKING FOR A COMPANY LIKE ENRON FOR THE LAST YEARS"
AND BASED ON THE THINGS YOU KNOW AND SAW THAT CAN BE DOCUMENTED JUST IN TAX FRAUD, THE FIDERS FEE FROM THE IRS WILL MORE THAN COVER THE MONEY

i think there is a serious problem when you have to admit to something you didnt do, someone has to be out there to help

SO WHATS THAT SAY

[Anonymous]

If payments were made of salary, there should be tax records reflecting the payment of that salary. Presumably this was not payment to an independent contractor, although if it were there should still be 1099's, because independent contractors don't get overtime pay.

If these people are alive, and yet proper payroll and tax records were not maintained, it should be possible to produce them and have them testify as to the money they received and what it was for. Also, there should be endless cancelled checks showing who received the money and where it was deposited.

So the defense needs to follow the paper trail, and assemble its witnesses.

[nwtflogan]

there are cancelled checks, thats the prosecutions evidence, the checks are made out to my relatuives son for the work he did at different times, THEY ARE SAYING IT WAS UNAUTHORIZED, And he hasnt been there in over 2 years when he was just there last april for 3 days straight all day.
my biggest question is how can a company that has been run for all these years with no prior SO CALLED AUTHORIZATION, do this obviously to make her look bad and pay. get away with this, the layer says if it goes to trial they need to prove he was there and that the average person cannot say 110% yes to that day and the ones that can are the ones that are trying to bury her, they obviously blatetly lied already.
also what i dont understand is when this started and she was terminated a couple weeks later after they went over the books she gets a letter from the companys attorney asking to pay back just the unauthorized overtime, she calls and asks and they say its above that the police are involved, next thing we know shes arrested, she hasnt had a speeding ticket or anything in over 40 years, when they come to the house to arrest her and take her computer and any rcords they can find in the warrant they take all the wron peples records and my sons savings bonds, when we read the wrrant it says they arrested her for fear of her not showing up in court, PLEASE shes been at the same address for over 25 years.
there has to be a way to beat this , THE TRUTH still has to work i cant believe this can happen in this day and age

[Anonymous]

Again, if he was employed there as an employee, there should be payroll and tax records indicating his employment. If he was employed as an independent contractor, there should be a 1099 (but it wouldn't make sense for him to be an independent contractor, as they don't receive overtime pay). So there should be a paper trail, above and beyond the checks he received.

Additionally, if he was performing work for them, even if he can't recall specific days (which is perfectly reasonable), he will be able to recall some days, and he will be able to recall general periods - and who else he saw at work on those days. Since he was purchasing hardware for his work, and was being reimbursed for that hardware, he should have records showing those purchases. (And if he doesn't, his vendors probably do.) Similarly, his own tax return should reflect the income he received.

[nwtflogan]

my relatives brother can recall alot of dates, and what he did they just paid him and not 1099 him, as for the overtime it was taxed just as my relatives salary was.

their ace in the hole here that the case revolves around is the UNAUTHORIZED OVERTIME AND COMPUTER WORK.

they saw him there and new what he was doing, now in the 23 years my realitive worked there and the 5 0r 6 her son did the work nothing was ever AUTHORZED i mean virtually nothing, it was my relatives job to make sure everything was handled and taken care of.
heres another fluke when the one owners son found out my relative was keeping track of all the charges on the corporate charge cards, because obviously the company cant explain half of them. his personal file with all the records VANISHED.
now once she pursues either the wisleblower route or the irs route about all the money they took that will take care of that and the kickback she recieves will more than cover what they are trying to make her pay back.

but for right now it seems its her word against theirs, and again they are using UNAUTHORIZED AS THEIR KEY.
They are not doubting the work or the overtime the only way they can really make her pay for getting ready to go to the other owner is usee unauthorized.
well wouldnt you think they would have said something years and years and years ago since this has been happening .
honestly i can tell you my relaitve pretty much ran the company.
now we here the compamny is in caos because they have no clue how to do the book work.
there has to be a way to prove they are getting back at her and that at no time in the past was anything really authorized
so you see the paper trail doesnt help, they just say its UNAUTHORIZED.
i could give you stories of how they did things and the kind of stealing going on that would make your hair stand up, but again that will all come out later right now i have to figure out how to prove they are FLAT OUT LYING.
THERES NO REASON TO HAVE TO PAY BACK OVER 40K SHE DIDNT EVEN RECIEVE,or the overtime she had been paying for all these years, except they just decided to go afterr 2 years of it

[Anonymous]

The prosecuting authorities are not going to charge somebody with a crime for making payments to an employee, where nobody disputes that the payments were made or that the employee performed work, merely because the owner of a business later claims that the payments to the employee weren't authorized.

Am I correct, that the accusation at issue is embezzlement? That means a taking of company funds for one's own benefit, even if laundered through a relative, not the payment of funds to somebody who an employer later contends was not authorized to be paid (even while admitting that the work at issue was performed).

[nwtflogan]

no they are caliming it unauthorized, and her attorney says proving beyond reasonable doubt is hard, almost all the time he did work at night but there was a few times all day long, the owners kids that run the company are never there anymore, she has over 30k tied up in retirement that she has tried to get free and every time they call, the kids are not there already left, when a few of the workers that have been there 20yrs plus heard what was going on they made the comment that the only one stealing was the the kids.
figure that one out, her attorney said the big thing was proving BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT that he was THERE ON THAT SPECIFIC DAY AND TIME, there is something wron here, if she actually did something i would say take your licks as would she, they are railroading her and there has to be a way to prove it.
this all started after the one son found the personal record with all the personal charges and such from the credit cards that were not company charges she kept track of, the kids wouldnt know how much the light bill was too pay if you asked them.
there has to be a way to track this.
id be the first to give in and say you shouldnt have done that if she really did anything wrong but it aint so.
and now the deal is off the table per the companys attorney, the prosecuter is fuming as well as the juge today, the prosecuter says if he could he would drop the charges so whats thats say?