Accusations are flying between former employees and the founder of Informedia Group, Inc. in light of Realtor client complaints against the company.

Although several former employees refused to allow their names to be published, calling Informedia President Alan Isabelle "intimidating and litigious," they tell the same story as those who agreed to go on the record for Realty Times - that Website company Informedia Group, Inc. was mismanaged and in trouble long before customers began to notice that their Websites were going unsupported in December 2003.

Isabelle gave Realty Times the following reasons why consumers Websites weren't being attended, why their domain names were registered to Informedia instead of to them, and why the company had been unresponsive to Realtor Website buyers' demands for attention: the company suffered sabotage, and that some employees had started competing companies, and that a criminal investigation was underway.

While these reasons appear to point to former employees, despite protests by Isabelle that Realty Times is putting words in his mouth, the ex-employees place the blame squarely on him.

They say it is Isabelle who is being investigated by the Department of Labor, and that the "sabotage" of servers with client information was due to lack of payment to providers. Further, the company owes employees thousands of dollars in back wages and taxes, they say.

Jennifer Lock, a former employee of Informedia is pregnant and on unemployment and says Informedia Group, Inc. founder Alan Isabelle still owes her $4000 in back wages.

"I am a former employee of Informedia Group, Inc. and President Alan Isabelle," writes Lock. "I was one of their first employees, joining them as a web designer in April of 2002. I worked for them until January 9th of this year, however I was forced to quit as I have not been paid since November of 2003. In addition to the lack of salary, he had been deducting 401K payments from our payroll, but had not been depositing them. He did finally deposit them in December, but we had already missed out on a lot of interest that we would have earned. Our payroll company is with-holding our W-2 forms because Alan has not paid for their services, so we cannot file our income taxes. These issues were all PRIOR to the sabotage of the servers, which could easily have been prevented by paying for the proper security programs, and by running server back-up's on a regular basis as any other company would do. Mr. Isabelle would not have back-ups run, although employees requested to have them done several times. When the sabatoge occured we were forced to restore a back-up from July.

About the domain name issue in which clients accused Informedia of registering their domain names to Informedia, Lock writes, "It is my understanding that Verio (a domain name registration firm) will not allow the release the domain names, because they have not been paid for."

Then Lock drops this bomb:

"On February 13, 2004 Alan Isabelle was brought into court by the New Jersey Department of Labor, and given 30 days to pay the back wages and taxes owed by Informedia Group," writes Lock. "Alan Isabelle told me that he had been planning to start a new company, but the Department of Labor will not allow him to start a new company, or hire new employees until he has paid his former employees the money he owes them, so he is forced to try to sell it. I can't believe that anybody would be interested in purchasing it, since there are so many unpaid debts, pending lawsuits and unsatisfied customers, not to mention the current company reputation. He may be facing criminal charges in Morris County, New Jersey because he bounced checks to several of us in November, and has not reimbursed us. There are also many lawsuits pending from former clients and a class action suit in Florida, not to mention the numerous vendors and companies that he owes money too (sic.)

"I feel the article on your site today has not told the whole story," says Lock. "Mr. Isabelle has squandered what had the makings of a great company, ruined the reputations of his former employees and customers, and has made my own life very difficult and unpleasant. I hope this information will help you and your readers understand what is really going on. I just wanted to set the record straight. Thank You."

Another ex-employee writes, "I was an employee for Informedia Group from 10/2002 until 12/2003. Informedia was a very small start up company of about 20 employees all working out of the Morristown NJ office (except for our national speakers, including Tony Martinez). I noticed suspicious activity back in April of 2002. I expressed my concerns to Mr. Isabelle at that time and was told that because Informedia was a startup company that there were going to be some cash flow problems. I was reassured by Mr. Isabelle that it was a temporary problem and things would smooth out soon enough. I believed Mr. Isabelle and knew that startup companies will experience such hick-ups (sic.) From April of 2002 to December of 2003 the financial situation of Informedia Group rapidly declined. It even got to the point where employees paychecks were bouncing, or we didn't even receive paychecks. Informedia Group was delinquent on many bills, even to the point where our server was shut down because of nonpayment on time. There are more severe issues that directly affected the employees, such as 401k money not deposited properly, and caused several of us to report him to the DOL. Soon after paychecks were late and bouncing, the moral (sic) of the office severely dropped. All employees are owed back pay."

The ex-employee continues, "Your article states that Mr. Isabelle "blames lack of attention to agents websites and response to clients on sabotage and disloyal employees". I take pure offense to this comment. Although I was not in the department that dealt directly with our customers, the Informedia Group team of about 20 employees worked so closely in our office that we all knew what was going on around us. Our web designers worked very hard and provided excellent customer service to our clients. The "sabotage" that Mr. Isabelle spoke of happened in January of 2004, after 95% of employees were laid off."

"Mr. Isabelle notified his employees in October/November that Informedia Group," the ex-employee adds, "was going to partner with another company in order to improve the financial standing and efficiency of Informedia Group. We were told that the merge was going to happen "in a few weeks" and that everything would be back to normal. Weeks later there was still no word on the "merge" and the financial situation remained poor. Employees were unexpectedly laid off on December 19, 2003, and asked to return to work in a few weeks while Informedia Group completed the "merger" and set up a new office location. I have reason to believe that Informedia Group was delinquent with rent payments and that we were evicted from our office building, leading to such an abrupt location change."

Further, writes the ex-employee, "No employees left Informedia Group to form a competing firm. The employees were laid off on December 19, 2003, and asked to return some time in January. When January rolled around and the employees realized that Informedia Group was bought out and we no longer had jobs, it was then that some went on as entrepreneurs.

"It doesn't surpass me that the domain names are not registered to the clients," the ex says. "His statement that "They were inadvertently registered to the company rather to the agent" just confirms the illegal business practices that Mr. Isabelle chose to participate in. He also accidentally charged customers credit cards 2 and 3 times and blamed it on the credit card companies. He blamed numerous "wire transfer errors" for checks bouncing. Mr. Isabelle was always quick to put the blame on others and give excuses. But most importantly, Mr. Isabelle rarely followed through on his promises, almost never!"

A call to Verio confirmed that Isabelle does indeed owe the domain registrar "a lot of money," said a spokesperson.

So how does a good business hit the skids?

A third employee suggests that Isabelle spent a lot of time developing a product that had nothing to do with making the Websites any better, but he wouldn't elaborate. "He was spending it faster than he brought it in," said the ex-employee.

This employee also suggests that the reason that Isabelle had clients names registered to Informedia, was his intention to sell the client database. "Having the names registered to him would help," he says.

Tony Martinez, former sales pitchman for Informedia, says he feels terrible about what's happened to customers and employees. Like other employees, he says he hung in there hoping that the bounced checks and client complaints were just temporary glitches.

"I'm owed $30,000 in wages, commissions and expenses," says Martinez. "I left December 17th, 2003. I resigned when the situation wasn't getting any better. I feel for the people. It tears me up."

Isabelle responds, "No, those statements are incorrect. Specifically what is correct is the the NJ DOL requested copies of payroll records from the company which were provided. The company has not been notified of any determination from the department as of this time. I am unaware of any criminal charges of any kind.

"The company is conducting a massive investigation regarding potential fraud by certain former personnel as well as theft of equipment. However I am unable to provide any specifics until such time as the investigation concludes.

"Lastly, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to be diligent in your fact-checking and journalistic standards. Your article mis-quoted me and made characterizations that I did not make in my statements to you. Several of the former employees of this company face very significant potential litigation and even serious criminal charges, however it would be irresponsible to elaborate until such time as evidence is gathered and action actually undertaken. Publishing baseless charges made by disgruntled former employees, some of who (sic) face potential legal action and some of whom have a clear agenda to damage the company for their own gain, is not responsible and is harmful."

Published: February 27, 2004

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

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