I began work for an employer 19 months prior to being discharged. 8 months into my employment the owner offered an "owner finance" situation for me to purchase the two locations. The owner of the company is not local and has never visited to stores from my initial hire. A purchase agreement was faxed over to me with no signature lines. The purchase agreement has very detailed information typed into it with his name, my name, name of company addresses of locations and details of the financial standings that I would have to meet to fulfill the agreement. I had my Uncle (a lawyer who passed away in January) review the agreement and offer advice on it. Terms were acceptable based on my financial stance currently and ability to purchase such a business on my own. I signed the bottom of the document and faxed it back to the owner. I was verbally told that once the agreement was fulfilled we would legalize the transaction mainly because legal policies did not allow him to sell the businesses to me with the lease agreements for the locations. Based on his claims and opportunity I was being offered, it made sense. 11 months later, after turning both stores around and making them profitable and meeting the conditions outlined in the agreement, his failed promise to allow me to purchase a point of sale system for both stores and utilize a system that would streamline inventory processes and smoothen my job duties out tremendously. Ultimately, taking the business's into the new century - he started giving me a lot of push back on things. One of those things being inventory over specific items sold and whom they were sold too. While every effort was being made on my part to locate the documents to provided them with proof of purchase, I was at a loss for several of them. (side note) These stores together produced 2.5 million dollars in sales for the year that I managed them, all based on a old school register system and over 30 boxes of retention paperwork). I felt as though his expectations on giving me two hours to produce the information he was requesting was not sufficient time, and I verbally expressed that. He began to become irate with me on the phone and I returned the behavior like a moron and threatened to expose his illegal practice of dispensing medication to animals for which they were not prescribed and misleading the mall management of actual sales produced vs. his figures that were less (mall rent is based on a % of sales made, the more sales = the more rent to pay). He made claims that, He was the reason I was so successful and I wouldn't have the opportunity if it wasn't for him. He furthermore went on to say that the agreement was never contracted and he never heard back from me agreeing to the terms. 3 days later he sent two people that I did not report to, to fire me on my day off. His reason for termination was "Failure to complete job description duties" and also listed on the write up that he had given me a verbal warning. . No verbal conversation about my performance or lack of being able to complete such duties was ever had or stated that this was a conversation that would be documented in my employee file. During my employment and given the opportunity to own the stores I began to spend my own money and hire family members to take part in this venture. The owner had stated many times to me to watch spending closely as it would place more money to the bottom line and help me achieve my goal of paying off the stores sooner. 3 weeks later now, and I am being accused of stealing $832 from a deposit from one of the stores, computer fraud; for supposedly accessing the stores computers via a remote log in program and messing up the system for the goal of tampering with stores ability to do business and now I am being accused of "stealing or giving away merchandise" and also being accused of opening a separate bank account and depositing funds from certain types of sales into. All of which he is sharing these comments and accusations with the current staff and to vendors of which I developed strong relationships with. While I have made every effort to separate myself from this business while my family continues to work there. I am hearing all of this information daily. I applied for unemployment and have yet to hear a response from them. The unemployment office verbally read to me a statement the office had sent to the unemployment commission blatantly stating "has stolen money and product from the business and destroyed computer systems to prevent employer from sales earnings resulting in a monetary loss". I have requested this documentation to be sent to me. He attempted to not pay me my paycheck. Only after pulling the law off the website and sending them a copy of it, did I receive a paycheck. My final paycheck was extremely short my salary for the final two days worked in the week and I still have not been compensated that after asking for their breakdown on the prorate vs. what my idea of the prorate should have been.

I have called a couple of lawyers here in my area (Virginia) and honestly do not have the funds to obtain legal counsel based on the fact that I am unemployed.

I was fired off property and returned all company property in my possession. I was told that I was not to be on the premises and if I wanted any of my personal belongings I would have to provided receipts for all such items. This is a business that I was accustomed to working 12-13 hour days 5-6 days a week, I have many misc items that are in both offices that I am being refused of getting. Clothes, desk pictures, small fish tank, shoes, pictures, printer... etc etc. I have not pushed the issue because I just wanted to be done with it.

Now, I feel as though that I am going to have a "DENIED" unemployment claim, horrible if not illegal employment reference and possible criminal charges brought against me for actions that I did not commit. The way that he has run this business for the years that he has owned it is archaic and there is a very poor accountability system in place. Now, because the owner nor his staff have absolutely no clue as to what they are looking at or how to find the right answer and to do the job I was doing - I'm being falsely accused because he doesn't know how to run his own stores. I know that my threat to him is what ended my employment and destroyed my opportunity but everyday I feel that I need to seek some legal advice. I have not pursued any type of actions because it would jeopardize my families employment and they were told that they would have their jobs as long as there was not any type retaliation for him firing me. I feel like he is trying to make me look horrible before I take an opportunity to to turn him and create chaos for his businesses. I verbally and emailed a sincere apology for my actions and explained that I was under a lot of stress, lack of a personal life, tired and felt as though I had no support from him or his office staff. I also need to mention that he owns 4 businesses that the office staff do things for.

HELP?! I do not know what direction I'm going right now. I can provide more information if needed. Sorry for in depth view, but I've been reading through a lot of these posts and the first thing stated is... "More information please". : )

Thanks in advance for advice/opinions given to this matter.

I'm sorry but I cannot sort through all of this. Can you boil it down to what the problem is? Much of the info you have posted seems to be unrelated or immaterial.

From what I'm reading you were told you were terminated for cause and you don't agree.

Am I correct?

I do not know what direction to take on all of this.

A. Fired for being a whistle blower on his illegal business practices?
B. Defamation of Character?
C. Did he have legal right to fire me based on business agreement?
D. Unemployment claim denied because his statement to commission stating that I stole company merchandise, money and computer fraud. Non of which I have heard anything from any legal authorities formally accusing me, but I was given the detectives name that was written on the dry erase board in my office. Claim was denied today based on the fact that I was insubordinate and used profanity towards him regardless if he used profanity towards me.

Okay, thanks for coming back and not being offended (which people often are). First thing is to appeal the Unemployment decision. A lot of filings are almost automatically denied and the person wins on appeal. Find that Detective and see what he/she has been told, what the investigation (if there was one) determined.

You cannot be fired for being a whistle blower. In fact, there is SOME protection in SOME circumstances. It's all set out here: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/whistle.htm

I don't know about firing you on the basis of a business agreement. What are the basic details? If it's an agreement which you breached, yes, your employment agreement is "over."

In order to sue for defamation of character your employer would have to say something which is (basically and this is the short version) which someone else believes and which causes you harm. For example, if he tells people you stole from him, you did NOT steal, you lose an opportunity for employment, this causes you a financial loss, yes, you have a lawsuit. You have to keep in mind, though, that my opinion may not be your opinion.

What would I do? I would call your local Bar (legal) Association, ask for a referral to an expert in Labor Law, GO IN and speak to that person. Have your thoughts in order, written down. Don't stay off course. Present things as you see them. The advice most probably won't be free but it should be reasonable and will be invaluable.

Does that work for you?

But of course, remember as what I assume is the manager, you are the one that most likely did the figures to the mall, you are the one who actually sold th illegal animal drugs, so although he knows about it, you were a party of all of those crimes also.

Next I will assume you did not actually whistleblow, but you threatened to if he did not >>> which is actually blackmail, so he can fire you for threatening to blackmail him.

Next I never heard you say that he signed the agreement and faxed or mailed it back to you, you have no way to really prove that he even wrote the agreement, so unless he signed the agreement, it was not a real or actual agreement, merely a future plan, in fact you said he told youu he could not do it at this time for some reason, so he told you it was not in place yet. So I see no valid contract to enforce.

So did you open a separate bank account, what is the issue with the 800 dollars, is it missing ?
Why did you hire a bunch of family members ? Are they still working, and if so, why can't they merely bring your belongings home.

Corrections - I did not do the figures to the mall. I started compiling my own accountability reports on a excel spread sheet that I created tracking all P&L. It was at the fiscal close of the year that I received a statement at store level that showed the reported sales for the location. I took that information to my office because it claimed 791,041.000 in sales for the fiscal year. My calculations from daily store reports was 1,692,721.00. When I confronted him with the information and asked why the discrepancy, he stated "thats none of your business at this point and its only putting more money to your bottom line to pay off the stores faster".

We were not in business of selling illegal drugs, it is a pet store. The puppies come in with various illnesses, to avoid high vet bills, he provided me a "cheat sheet" that said what to give what for what. The medications are not labeled for canine/feline usage, its against the law and I begged for an alternative way of diagnosis.

FrChuck, you obviously read it and I did not - you raised some very good points.

You are correct about the contract. That was my impression at this point. If pushed I could prove that he wrote the agreement and we were operating under it. It would take a lot of time and effort but if this became a court case, I feel as though there are enough witnesses that were informed of such.

No, I never opened a separate bank account, that information is coming out of left wing somewhere.
The operations manager had placed deposits in my backpack upon arrival to the store. I took my backpack upstairs prepared the deposits with what was given to me and deposited them the morning I was fired. I had no way of knowing if anything was missing based on timeline of events.

I hired family members because we all have animal backgrounds and the plan was that it would become a family business. They are still working and they have been told that if they touch anything that "supposedly" belonged to me to return it - they would be fired for taking company property.

I have contacted the local bar and spoken to 4 different lawyers, what is reasonable? I have been quoted 295, 400, 350 and 275 an hour for consultation. Any of these are more than I can afford to loose currently but if I've got a chance at moving on successfully and this is my only option, then it's a price I'm going to have to pay.

Also, I received a response from someone in the office about my final prorated paycheck. It states "your final paycheck is prorated based on a six day work week that we require all salaried managers to work". I have never heard of that nor do I understand that. Can he do that after the fact? He hired me with the agreement that I would work 45 hour minimum. I used that number to calculate my salary prorate.
As for the business agreement, the only out he should have had was if both stores sales fell below 40% target payoff time line. Which was a 24 month agreement to produce 1,500,000.00 profit

Well many business people do "creative" book keeping and it is hard to say how he was doing his books, but again, if keeping the books was not your position, there may have been funds, that were entered in other areas, perhaps some sales were funneled into other operating areas. I know even myself, I have three corporations where money is funded for various reasons.

As long as he was accounting to the IRS for the profit of the company, the issue of cheating the Mall is civil issue not criminal,

But regardless, once you knew he was crooked, you quit, or you lose your credibility since after that point you are part of it. And if he did all of this, what do you expect, and most likely almost nothing he did, effects you to the point of having a basis to sue, you are not the mall, and he after you were talking to him the way you did, would have been fired by any boss.

But there is no legal binding business agreement, he never signed or agreed to it in a legal manner. He may have worked or gave an appearance of it, but nothing is binding from what you have told us.

I would say that the difference in prorating is what, plus or minus 200 dollars ? If so, sue him for that in small claims court.

Also, good example, if you can't find an attorney willing to take this on for a percentage, most likely none of them see this as a good or easy case to be able to win, or if they could win, don't see any real money to win.

One issue, what in the contract, is the penalty for being in breach, Let us say, it was a legal contract ( which I don't think it is) and he has now breached that contract, you can collect those loses or penalty listed in that contract, so what do you get if he breaches according to that contract

Thanks for all of the feedback, while of course its not what I wanted to hear - its what I have felt was the case all along. Thanks for the time that you have spent responding. I appreciate it.