I need a lawyer

I'm really not sure how not paying an employee correctly would be considered money laundering. That has to do with a company taking in illegal money like from illegal drug sales and filtering it through a legit business to pay another business. That's not what's going on here.

Misrepresenting income has nothing to do with money laundering. A lot of drug kingpins are found guilty of money laundering when they are caught.

 

i was going on a tangent of something my own employer did. he actually didn't do alot of shorting me on the pay he mostly did cooking the books on the securities side of the business.

but that tangent wasn't part of the main thing i was talking about. which was the payroll skimming on pay. I main my message "on topic" was about responding to the "it must be written" which if it's NOT then this is a violation. Then this gives the worker leverage to win the case, because you only need 51 percent evidence to win the case at that point, and you already highlighted on major violation of the employer relating to the pay roll. Would be somewhat easy to win the case even if it's "not written".

 

Drier say it in small words lol

 

The takeaway from anyone reading this thread should be to write down every single assigned load mileage any additional work that would result in accessory pay. Keep records. Now for this man to get paid he would have to rely on the company to go through the records and more importantly in writing admit that they failed to pay him. This will never happen.

I suspect the reason all these shuttle pay jobs are submitted u der a single generic job code, is because jb hunt is not paying all their drivers. I think non payment for these moves is the default. Then the people that are smart enough to catch it/keep records, all submit under a single number. This allows corporate/management to track xxxx is the payroll we should have paid out, but yyyy ( under the generic load number) is what we actually paid out. This means they can very easily track the (illicit) savings xxxx-yyyy= look what an awesome job I'm doing at the chicago terminal bosses.

The worst part about this is someone would have to get hired or be working now. Track all the jobs, not be paid, have the proof, and do this for 179 days. Because according to the paperwork you posted you have 180 days to submit descrepancies. Then simultaneously hire an attorney and have the attorney fight the case, while simultaneously finding other drivers who are also getting shafted. Clearly any JB Hunt drivers should be checking this and figure out if they have had wages withheld. I would also submit whistleblower emailswith the state and federal labor departments, the IRS, and any other organizations that would be i terested in this. By them not paying you, that means the government is being robbed of those taxes as well.

 

Finally a superhero has come to save the trucking industry.And punish the dastardly company owners.Thank you I will call super trucker man.

 

the record keeping or accounting trick you listed in paragraph 2. that would be a violation. that is a securities violation. "securities" is like things about representations about earnings of the company and expenses. this is important to keep accurate, because it can be used to do bankrupsy fraud, and money laundering, and misleading investors, and misleading shareholders. and much more.

this is actually very common in trucking(from what it looks like on surface value). because trucking deals with drivers, not accounting forensics experts. so the trucking companies alot of them take the risks because the reward is high and chances of get caught is low.


it's still very hard crimes to prosecute because even if you call the fbi, they fbi will hang up on you unless you are reporting a crime. but the problem is this is "suspicious activity" there is no way for me to have the evidence of these crimes this is why i am calling the fbi, so the fbi can help discover the crime after alot of suspicious activity has been seen. even then, the fbi people seem to be clueless about how accounting forensics works or alteast the ones who answer the phone calls. so there is "fincen" and dedicated accounting forensics experts who are more geared for it than fbi is.

sure they might short drivers on pay, but alot of companies the bulk of the crime is in the securities area. some lower management might try to do the short drivers on pay stuff, but still owners of the company can be vicariously liable for that.

 

Before this would ever be criminally investigated by an entity like the FBI, it would have to play out in civil court. That isiwhy you hire an attorney and try to fight it civilly. If enough people are affected then it becomes a class action suit.

The reason you make whistleblower complaints is because sometimes this can initiate an IRS audit. If JB Hunt is audited and civilly sued, wrongdoing can potentially be uncovered which would then potentially lead to criminal charges.

Also if a company has employees/contractors all making similar complaints of wages being withheld, specifically regarding these shuttle moves like this situation, it starts to raise huge red flags.

Not just people being fired or companies being audited but fines that can be hundreds of millions of dollars, people being forced to sell companies, entire corporate leadership being replaced, criminal charges - prison time.

Situations like this are so much bigger than, " hey you stole, by withholding wages, $10,000 from me this year" or "over the course of my employment you withheld $60,000 in wages from me" ( depending on length of employment and going off his complaint of roughly a $10,000 loss on average a year). It becomes a concerted effort to defraud, to not only avoid paying wages but paying taxes.

This means complicity at multiple levels, local terminal managers, up to the President of the company, also potentially accountants. This could definitely warrant criminal charges but first civil suits and hopefully an IRS audit.

There are rewards paid ouinby the IRS in some instances when fraudulent practices are uncovered. I don't know the details.

Also no one is calling the FBI. Not that this situation warrants it at this stage but if you had a tip for the FBI you could submit it through their website.

Again, I don't think this driver will ever get his money back because he doesn't have the proof. They have put him on notice going forward on how to get paid, so he will follow the steps and be paid. His only chance at recouping any monies would be someone else suing under the circumstances I detailed above, and possibly being a plaintiff if it became a class action lawsuit.

That's why it's important to file the whistleblower complaints.

I just googled it and the Illinois IRS and the federal office for the IRS both have 1-800 #'s you can call to provide an anonymous tip about fraudulent business practices.

I would be very concise in my explanation. Something along the lines of......"I am a driver and recently discovered that I have not been getting paid for a portion of my work that averages about $10,000 a year. I checked all my previous pay stubs and had I been paid there would be an entry for shuttle pay which doesnt exist. When I brought this up to management they told me that when it comes to these specific jobs they are handled different for accounting reasons. At no point, was this ever explained to me. I have spoke with other drivers and the are also either completely unaware of the required process to be paid, or like me, realized they weren't getting paid and after complaining - someone explained the company accounting hack of the generic job assignment number. The company has benefited from all of my free labor by withholding my wages and they have benifited from not having to pay any taxes on that payroll. They said due to an employment contract I signed I can no longer dispute wages older than 180 days. This seems illegal because if I wasn't paid but performed the work, it just becomes free labor for the company after six months? I didn't know there was a statue of limitations on me being paid. They also said they are unwilling to go through my logs to provide me the relevant date and times I sent messages regarding the work I performed. I have spoke with other drivers who have had similar experiences and were never paid until another driver brought it to their attention. I am not the only one. And if this is happening to me to the tune of 10,000 per year on average how many other drivers are losing wages and how much money has the government lost in taxes? I have done what I can do but maybe the IRS has the ability to make this right by taking a look at their books, specifically at these shuttle moves at this particular location." Then provide the generic job assignment number they have you use. I would leave all my contact information but if you want it can be done anonymously.

Maybe this can help. Also maybe change the name of this thread from I need a lawyer to JB Hunt not paying drivers. That way drivers can be made aware of this.

 

Wow a lot of misinformation.

I am going to make this simple. contact your states labor agency, file a complaint with them and if they don't do anything, contact the EEOC.

The FBI would NOT be involved, the IRS commercial investigators would. The FBI needs to be refered if there are crimes beyond the simple financial crimes but the IRS doesn't need to justify their investigation or refered.

Yes but you better have some money, many good lawyers will not take your case on contingent, they may agree to a fixed fee for the case but don't expect a huge amount of effort.

Really, what is with you guys and this class action crap. You know what it takes to get this approved. The defense can ask the court to separate the cases when the class action motion come up.

You are not a whistleblower for a wage shortage. If you know something that is really bad, has collusion involved and effects more than just a few people, that may qualify you as a whistleblower protection but outside of that, you have some retaliation protections if you still work for them.

Then the IRS is involved and will level charges, not the FBI.

 

I don't want this to come off judgemental but you have poor reading comprehension. You also don't know the definition of misinformation. Misinformation would imply that something I said was trying to INTENTIONALLY DECEIVE someone. I am not trying to intentionally or inadvertently deceive or mislead anyone. I am only speaking from personal experience. I never mentioned the FBI except to reference the poster before me. In your last statement you made a leap by connecting my statement about possible criminal charges to the FBI. That was your error. Many lawyers will take corporate lawsuits because the judgements are usually quite high. Yes the defense could ask to separate the cases but that would be unlikely in a case like this where all the facts would essentially be the same across the board depending on whether someone is 1099 or w2. I stand by what I said about whistleblowing. There is nothing to be lost by reporting. The bulk of all those words I wrote stressed that the IRS is the avenue to pursue action, but whistleblowing and litigation are options as well. Thanks for responding though. I am sure the op appreciates traction on his post. I have no connection to this situation but I am sure that people who work for this company can only benefit from people talking about and being aware that this is potentially happening. Not sure if you're an active driver but either way stay safe and thanks for the insights.

 

The state labor board can only recover based on proof, and he's lacking the copies of his messages and the company isn't going to volunteer that information. So he can't point to the job assignments, dates, times, or anything that can help him prove his unpaid wages. The federal labor board will only operate off written contracts and claim to be only able to recover the federal minimum wage, which wouldn't help a trucker. The EEOC I beleive only deals with discrimination. There aren't a ton of options when you don't have access to the messages/relevant information.