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Scam: #610

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  • Posted By: Anonymous
  • Submitted: 04/21/2010
  • Severity: 10
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WomenCertified (dba Medelia Inc and Women Certified)

WomenCertified - Pirates of Intellectual Property, Opportunity Scam Artists and Charlatans

Hollywood, Florida, 33020

Watch out for the charlatans that run WomenCertified.com (a division of Medelia, Inc)!!! I am a former executive of the company and witnessed it from the inside out. When I challenged the couple that owns the business, they ran me out!

I was forewarned by many people, but similar to those before me, I was approached by them during a vulnerable time in my career and I was made many "fantastic" promises. Not only did they use me, while pirating my intellectual property, and spit me out (without warning or cause), but they proceeded to deprive me and my family of 5 the monies promised (both salary and commissions) during our hour of greatest need. I should not have been surprised that a multi-million dollar firm (over 9 years old) had not even 1 salesperson working for the company when I came on board. They have a track record of using people and "kicking them to the curb" - just ask the women who conceptualized and designed their online training methodology!

Be cautious of investing into this Ponzi scheme! They used my business plan and experience to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars of investors monies (even putting me on the phone with investors), only to turn around and reallocate the funds for personal and other unintended use. When I spoke up about it, they demoted me! There have been many investors before I came along, yet little to show but an overworked skeleton staff (3 people when I came on board) and hundreds of disappointed customers. New investment dollars are repeatedly sought after, to help fund the past failures and promises to prior investors.

They discriminate against males. Every male I brought on board was either fired by Delia or I was told to fire. When I was directed to terminate my top sales rep, Kyle, and refused, she demoted me again. She said, "This product needs to be sold by women and a woman needs to be running the sales force. Men should only be in supporting roles." When I told her that it was not only discriminatory, but a violation of their sales agreement, she terminated me within days.

The husband of founder, Delia Passi, is a bully and a cheat! Greg Smalter abuses employees verbally and has been caught several times trying to short change salespeople of what they are owed. Over 50% of the accounts sold were mismanaged financially by Greg (whose full time job is CFO), resulting in untimely payments, incorrect charges and more. Then, when he fails to charge the client according to the paperwork signed by the client, he penalized the salesperson, denying them commissions. It happened to my sales reps and it happened to me as well!

Be cautious of their promises. Most of what they promise is based on smoke and mirrors. Whether a prospective client, salesperson or investor, you are putting yourself at risk when you attach yourselves to these folks.
- Don't pay $.06-.08 per email that they mark up 3-4x as a reseller (you can get much cheaper directly from the supplier)
- Don't risk your family’s financial future with a 9 year old company that has not sales employee over 6 months in tenure (they will find a way of avoiding their obligations to you, like they have to me and so many others)
- Don't invest your dollars with charlatans (they will misappropriate your funds, for unintended "pet projects" and personal use)

I never met one single client that saw ANY return on investment (and we spoke to hundreds of them). The training is a "nicety" and a "luxury" with little real value, while most of the support they promise is non-existent (such as mystery shops). When a company has no references that can verify ROI, when your "model clients" repeatedly cancel your meetings and leave you for your compititors, when you don't have one successful salesperson with more than 3-6 months tenure - there is something very wrong!

As a former executive with intimate knowledge of the inner workings of WomenCertified, I can only do my part to forewarn others based on my own personal experience. I am not the only one (as I have heard from several others personally), but they will have to tell their own story. My bible teaches me that one reaps what they sow. A time of reckoning is past due for these folks.

Feel free to email me for more information.

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WomenCertified - Pirates of Intellectual Property, Opportunity Scam Artists and Charlatans WomenCertified - Pirates of Intellectual Property, Opportunity Scam Artists and Charlatans

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This report by Daniel Pearlman is an attempt to extract some retribution after being terminated.

I could take issue with many things written by Mr. Pearlman, but will keep it brief. Daniel approached us, not the other way around, with an offer to help us market our services, using a means that is not his intellectual property, as he learned about us when we spoke with his prior employer. He made many grand promises as to the business he would generate. It did not come true.

In negotiating an employment contract he demanded a large equity position in the company, despite failing to deliver on his promises. Negotiations reached a deadlock and we asked him to leave. He was paid all the salary and commissions he was due.

Mr. Pearlman's comments are inaccurate, damaging and libelous. If he had any valid claim against our company, he would take legal action, not write lies on the internet.
Libel would indicate false and malicious. This is neither.

Greg, Greg, Greg..

Since you took the time to respond (as opposed to sending me my past-due pay), I will speak to a few of the things you wrote:

1) I never asked for work. When I was working for CityTwist, my sales rep Larry Hinton asked me to help him gain an audience with Delia. When I suggested to Delia that she add digital marketing to her product portfolio, she quickly proposed I come to work for her to build the solution and then to build the sales force to sell it. She invited me and my wife to dinner with her, you and one of your investors that very weekend. Not only was Larry a witness to her recruiting efforts, but the CEO of CityTwist overheard it as well and asked me to leave if I was considering her offer. You (both) wasted no time extending verbal offers to me (with "fantastic promises, which neither came in writing, nor were they honored) to come work for you and to engage CityTwist as your email supplier, which I did. I was out of work for less than 24 hours.

2) As far as promises go, I only promised to put forward my best efforts - if you secured $250,000 to fund the business plan you asked me to prepare – which I did at a rate of nearly 100 hours per week. HOWEVER, you told the investors that their $250,000 would fund our 12 month plan to build a product and a sales team. After only 3 months and $60,000 (which I can document), you informed me that the money was gone. You asked me to terminate all salespeople (including one that was scheduled to start the following week and already quit her job) and you cut my salary by more than 50%. What was my response? I put in even more hours and started doing the one thing I told you I was unwilling to do when you hired me – to build a commission based sales force. When I asked what happened to the money, you got very upset, telling me that you had “other expenses” that were not part of the business plan (which the investors thought their funds were being used for) and that it was “none of my business how the money is spent.”

3) When you tried to cut my pay again the following month (for the 2nd time in less than 60 days) and asked me to take over operations as well, we then reached a deadlock. If refusing to take on more work for less pay is worthy of being fired, then I guess I deserved what I got! You failed to honor any of your former agreements with me, so I demanded certain things in writing, which you refused. Since then, you have continued to withhold earned income, confirming my doubts.

4) As far as legal action, keep your eyes on your mailbox. That process is underway already. It is sad that a struggling family has to borrow money in order to sue a former employer to get what was already earned. This is yet one more of your bully tactics.



Believe it or not, I wish you all no harm. Although I struggle spiritually to forgive you, I trust that God will help me to love and pray for you. In the meantime, others should be warned before they make the same mistakes I made in trusting you to keep your word and do what is right. Or perhaps you will decide to change your ways and correct the wrongs that have been done. It is still not too late.
Daniel I am so glad you showed your true colors. When I worked for you I thought you were the lowest human being I had ever met. You are an evil and nasty man. Those business owners are the nicest people I have ever worked for - but you made it impossible to be there. No one liked you and the women hated you. When I quit I was wondering how long it would take Delia and Greg to figure you out. I am so glad it didnt take them so long because you could have done even more damage. Customers hated working with you and we did too. Now I feel better that you have exposed yourself for who you really are - a nasty vindictive scandral who gets off hurting others. All this negative energy will eat you alive - and you deserve it! SHAME ON YOU!!
You were clearly never my employee, as no employee of mine has ever had a reason to consider me "low", "evil" or "nasty". I find it interesting that you are so bold in your defaming words, yet hide behind a mask of anonymity. I have over 100 former employees that have followed me to other companies over the years because i operate with complete honesty and a relentless dedication to the success of my team - even to my own detriment. The only "disgruntled" employees i have had have been ones that do not want leadership because they have a motive other than working hard for their success and the success of their company.
My grudge with Delia and Greg are not your business and are based on substantiated facts, without hiding who i am. You are an uninvited 3rd party who aims to impugn my integrity - too cowardly to talk to me directly (as i had tirelessly with Greg and Delia) or to publicly state your claim without hiding your identity. It is hard to respect what you are doing.
Nice try though..

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