A published report is bringing to light a lawsuit filed by a former employee of a collection agency who is accusing the company of engaging in illegal activity and not providing copies of call recordings that were requested by a state attorney general’s office. The agency has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming it is the action of an “unstable disgruntled employee who secretly compiled and stole information” from the company.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Georgia state court in July, became part of the narrative following an inquiry by a news outlet regarding call recordings that it had obtained, recordings that the agency had told the Colorado Attorney General did not exist. The former employee claims he was told by a vice president at the agency to tell the Colorado AG that the tapes did not exist, even though the employee had initially defended the collector involved in the recorded calls to the attorney general. The vice president said the employee “either did not perform the investigation as he stated, or he was not forthcoming in his findings,” according to the published report. Acknowledging that he signed the letter stating the recordings did not exist and that he ultimately was responsible, the vice president said “negative appearance of these contradictions and discrepancies are clear and acknowledged, but this is not consistent with my values and is out of character.”
The collector in the recordings was subsequently fired for poor behavior. In the recordings, the collector can be heard telling an individual never to call back “because you’re one of those people, you don’t want to hear the truth. And you don’t want to accept the truth.”
In filing a 73-page motion to dismiss the lawsuit, the agency says the former employee is bound by an arbitration agreement, an agreement that another Georgia state court judge has already enforced, and accuses the former employee of engaging in a pattern of harassment toward the agency and its employees.
The president of the agency and the vice president who signed the letter to the Colorado attorney general both participated in interviews for the published report, refuting all of the employee’s claims while accepting responsibility for the actions of the former collector. Said the president of the agency, according to the report: “the collections industry has more than its fair share of bad apples. There’s no doubt about it. We’re not one of them. We go to great lengths to operate totally above board, and in compliance with the law, and to serve our customers well.”
