Ohio Democratic Party

06/08/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/08/2024 15:06

NEW: Bernie Moreno Faced ANOTHER Lawsuit For Stiffing Employee And Altering Documents

NEW: Bernie Moreno Faced ANOTHER Lawsuit For Stiffing Employee And Altering Documents

August 6, 2024

Cleveland.com: Bernie Moreno Got Sued By An Employee Who Said He Didn't Get Paid What He Was Promised. Here's What Happened.

Columbus, OH - New reporting from Cleveland.com revealed Bernie Moreno faced another lawsuit from a former employee whom Moreno "stiffed out of money that Moreno personally promised him." After the employee spoke out, Moreno "retaliated by firing him" and "improperly altered" the termination document to try to get away with it.

This is the "latest in a string" of lawsuits Moreno has faced for "stiffing workers," including one lawsuit where he deliberately destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of paying his workers the overtime they earned.

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Cleveland.com: Bernie Moreno got sued by an employee who said he didn't get paid what he was promised. Here's what happened.
Andrew J. Tobias
August 5, 2024

  • During his previous career as a high-end auto dealer, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno was sued by an employee who said he was stiffed out of money that Moreno personally promised him before he was hired.
  • Michael Falcone sued in 2014, two months after he said he was fired from his job as general sales manager of a Moreno-owned Porsche dealer in North Olmsted. In his lawsuit, he said Moreno sent him an email right before he was hired in 2012 guaranteeing he'd be paid a percentage of the dealership's profits. But Falcone said he never got the money.
  • Falcone said the company retaliated by firing him while making him sign a termination document under duress, then improperly altered the document.
  • Falcone's lawsuit offers an example of how Moreno handled disputes involving workers at his car dealership empire. It is the latest in a string of several years-old employee lawsuits that have been newly aired out during Moreno's Senate campaign.
  • But Falcone said he was never paid a percentage of holdback, which he learned through his subsequent lawsuit would have been worth tens of thousands of dollars.
  • Falcone said when he complained about his pay, including asking to see the company's financial statements, he was first demoted and then fired in January 2014.
  • When he was fired, Falcone said a company official pressured him to sign a termination document that was changed after he signed it.
  • But later, when he requested a copy of the document, Falcone said the part indicating he was laid off was whited out.
  • In January, the Columbus Dispatch reported how starting in 2017, Moreno was sued 15 separate times by employees of a Massachusetts car dealership he previously managed who said he improperly withheld their overtime pay.
  • Moreno was ordered to pay $416,000 in one case in November 2022, with a judge also sanctioning him for improperly destroying payroll records during the case.
  • Moreno and his company also faced three lawsuits filed between 2015 and 2017 in Cuyahoga County from employees who alleged discrimination, the Associated Press reported in January. One alleged age discrimination, one alleged gender discrimination and the third alleged racial discrimination.

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