I had heard a few years ago that he was the second or third richest person in Illinois, behind Oprah Winfrey, who was/is number one. Recently, with that in mind, I went to the Google to see if that were true.
Nope. Not anymore. While not among the poorest, he's now many, many millions shy of the lead. There were details of fraud and the defaulting on a $39 million loan from a major bank. A bank he owned had also closed. Twenty of his business's were in bankruptcy. He, his wife and their children were being sued and also filing personal and corporate bankruptcies. With ties to India, their passports had been confiscated by the authorities.
Dude fucked up.
Twenty years ago I worked for the man. It was hard to get him to admit this though. He tried extremely hard to believe that I worked for my brother-in-law. He tried to convince me of this. As if I wouldn't know! But, he also tried to convince the IRS of this. They, like me and my BIL, knew better.
The guy (I'll call him. "Apu") was the poster boy for greed. Though a pleasant, intelligent man, he was so obsessed with money that it was sadly comical. If I had a dollar for every time I heard him exclaim: "THAT IS NOT SAVING ME MONEY!!!!" I'd have a few million myself. "Saving (him) money" was his not spending it on bills for services rendered or arbitrarily cheating people out of theirs. In my case he tried to portray me as an independent contractor to keep me off his payroll and prevent him from being an employer, responsible for his share of my taxes, etc. Though a multi-millionaire at the time and an employer of a few hundred people, this literally saved him a couple thousand dollars. WINNING!
I guaran-fucking-tee this asshole was as excited about screwing- oops! SAVING!- someone out of a few thousand dollars as he would be clearing a million in a business deal. It was all about the same to him. In my case, it was his fantasy that I was an independent contractor responsible for my own taxes. In my BIL's case (and many others) it was simply a matter of not paying him for his services. You see, him having to pay for things WAS NOT SAVING HIM MONEY!!!! What part of that did people not understand???
Well, all of it. He was always verrrryyyy slooooowwww in paying my BIL, Johnny. He was stringing Johnny along. When Johnny completed work for him and went to collect payment, Apu would promise to pay and then reward Johnny with more work. Johnny didn't like Apu being so slow to pay but, he would eventually get around to parting with payment. Johnny was happy to have the work. He did distress over that plus having to negotiate every transaction. For example, if a job would cost Johnny $2,000 to perform (material, labor, profit...) Apu would immediately ask that Johnny do the work for $1,000. The method to his madness was cutting the price in half. I suggested to Johnny that he double his bids, let Apu "win" by doing his thing and make the fair profit at his real price. Then everyone is happy! YAY!
Well, I'm no business major. Does it show? Negotiation- bartering- is typical of other cultures. Indians are really in love with it. However, simply cutting an offer in half isn't exactly the art of the deal. On Pawn Stars, Rick will go to a grand, hoping to get it for an item being sold to him but, will go to $1500 if he can get it because he knows that's a fair price for him and the seller. That's Rick though. Apu would have no idea what Johnny's should be. He just knew any price was too high and slavery was illegal (DAMMIT!) and just to cut the price in half...
Greed really can be a sickness. If beating a poor man out of a few thousand is as important to you as making a million dollars, you have a problem. The problem is that you are an asshole. So many rich people are. It perturbed me then, as now, that so many people tend to shrug people like Apu or the Koch brothers off by saying: "Well, that's how they get rich..." as if that justified it. That is the method to the madness. The madness is good.
I burned Apu and the bridge behind me to him by consulting with the IRS at tax time. I had given this guy every chance to do right and include me on his payroll but, he resisted. That wasn't saving him money, after all. I put these wheels in motion when he laid me off in an attempt to get me to come back to work for him...at less pay. That wasn't going to happen. I knew that the IRS would agree that I was an employee. To determine these things they have a list of 20 questions about your employment that prove whether one is an independent contractor or an employee. I was all twenty. I was an employee.
This cut my tax burden in half. They went after him for the other half. I kinda liked the lovely irony of that.
I don't know exactly how bad off he is right now but, bankruptcies, frozen assets, foreclosures and lawsuits might pale in comparison to the ignominy of a Ferrerman not saving him money!!!! Oh my...
Johnny refuses to discuss how much Apu beat him out of. I think we're talking five figures. It hurts, for sure. He should have paid closer attention to what had happened to me and to his own former boss's refusal to work again for "that chiseler". That's human nature. It's easy for us to look at the plight of others and tell ourselves that that won't happen to me.
I learned a lesson. Greed is not good. It's not good for me and it's not good for you. OK, I knew that going in but I really learned it after that. Apu was a thief. He stole big and he stole small. He simply lived to steal. He wasn't a drug dealer or a gangster but he had the soul of one. That would be no soul at all, for those of you scoring at home.
I guess there's one good thing in his favor right now: he won't get soaked by Obama when The Bush Tax Cuts For Rich People expire. That'll save him money...
4 comments:
I think this is the way some people really do make their money. My niece and her husband have a cabinet making business and work at the upper end of the market making bespoke stuff. The rich do not like to pay and when they do they like to take their time about it. Ordinary people wanting something special have the money ready, but you have to badger the ones who can afford it and they often have to write it off as it's cheaper than taking it to court. Obviously, they aren't all like it but they always have to work hard at getting the money.
That's what my BIL faced- going to court, winning and still not getting paid. They count on that. Working people tend to have more integrity. At least they don't feel that the world should worship them for their wealth. The only people I've ever had trouble collecting from were rich or corporations. I just can't respect their attitude.
I'm late here, too, but you are a good businessman, Ferrerman. Doubling the price is exactly what you should do when dealing with people of other cultures where bartering is what they do.
My brother ran a couple of automotive repair and Smog stations here and when an eastern Indian walked in the door, Larry automatically doubled the price. In the end, everyone was happy.
You can expect this fellow to end up in prison. Non payment or, worse, avoiding 941 (employee) taxes is a federal crime. It's the only debt you can't include in a federal bankruptcy. That, and students loans.
Oh, one more thing - it's very common for these men to file business licences and other miscellaneous in their wives' names. They mistakenly believe that women are second class citizens here, like they are in their own countries,and won't be arrested or held accountable.
It's funny- try going into their gas station, get $20 of gas and offer them $10. They hate that!
If I remember right, the guys wife came from money. I'm not sure what that means in their culture but, it can't hurt. Still, the newspaper accounts said he started out working door to door selling magazines or something so, there was an element of 'paying his dues'. Of course, the Joe Pesci character in "Goodfellas" started out with a shinebox. Then he became a gangster. And a sociopath. There's no telling how deep he was in his greed. Stealing small is a good indication though of the sickness of greed.
He owned property too and I remember a commercial paint contractor was one of the tenants. A secretary showed me a letter that they sent him practically begging for work because business was slow. He had had then bidding on stuff that he fully intended me to do- I think- just to jerk himself off with how much he was "saving". But, he was stringing them along and that was ignorant. I was hourly so, he tried to "save money" by insisting I "work faster". It was comical really. He'd ask how long it would take me to do a job. I'd say, 4 days. He'd say I'd have to do it in two. I couldn't so, I'd say get someone else. It HAD to be me. It was arbitrary on his part, of course. Even back then I was pretty good at sizing up a job, time-wise, etc. So, I do the job in 4 days and hear "THAT'S NOT SAVING ME MONEY!!!!" But, that's what it took.
Just depraved, manic greed.
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