Workplace Compliance Services

In July 2018, letters were mailed to owners of limited liability companies (LLCs) in Hawaii that were apparently sent by a company calling itself "Workplace Compliance Services". The letter and the envelope made it very clear that they had not been sent by a government agency, but by a private entity. The letter was a form filled-out with the LLC's business registration information, along with a request for fees, which would pay for Workplace Compliance Services submitting the annual report required of all limited liability companies operating in Hawaii.

The fee charged by the State of Hawaii when submitting your annual report is twenty-five dollars and Workplace Compliance Services was asking for an additional $75 as a "processing fee", for a total amount of $100 that LLC owners were being asked to pay. I would also like to point-out that there is no way to tell if these people will actually take care of filing your LLC's annual report, even if you pay them. They could just take your money and run.

Workplace Compliance Services and similar outfits have worked their respective schemes in several States already, so Hawaii isn't their first rodeo.

I've Got Their Number

The toll-free number they provide to contact them is 877-770-3555 and it comes up in Internet searches related to past and ongoing mailings these people have sent. The top result of my first Googling of this number reveals what may be either a previous or simultaneous incarnation of this company, called "Business Compliance Services", which was reported in Georgia. I've seen other posts about a company calling itself "Corporate Compliance Services", which was active in 2016 but there are no recent posts about them.

People have also reported receiving calls from that number, though messages weren't left on their voicemail, so it seems that mailing letters is their preferred method of operating. The reports are found on WhoCallsMe and 800Notes.

Interestingly, the phone number also comes up in a search as having been posted in a classified ad in The Employment Guide Northern New Jersey in the October 20 -26, 2014 edition on page seven. I tried a WhoIs for the website GuitarsForCash.com and came up with nothing. I doubt if it's the same people, though. The toll-free number was probably abandoned by the guitar guys and later purchased by the new ones.

The postal stamp on a letter received in Hawaii indicates that the place of origin was in zip code 33912, which is Fort Myers, Florida.

I actually called the number to see what would happen and heard a voicemail message. It's a professionally-done recording and the woman's voice betrayed no accent. The voice seems to be of a Caucasian woman, which is the only thing I could get out of listening to the message twice. Their business hours are from 9:00am to 5:00pm Eastern Standard Time, which lines up well enough with the Florida zip code on the letters received.

The mailing addresses provided in their mailings across the United States indicate a preference for using UPS Stores to receive their checks. A few examples:

Georgia: 4279 Roswell Rd NE Atlanta, GA 30342-3769
Hawaii: 4348 Waialae Ave #700, Honolulu, HI 96816
Louisiana: 721 Government St #103-118, Baton Rouge, LA 70802
Louisiana: 7350 Jefferson Highway, Suite 485-220, Baton Rouge, LA 70806
New Jersey: 1977 N. Olden Avenue Ext #650,  Trenton, NJ 08618
Oregon: 2755 Commercial St SE Ste. 101-260 Salem, OR 97302
West Virginia: 3501 MacCorkle Ave SE #152, Charleston, WV 25304

Either they have a co-conspirator picking up the mail from these places and forwarding them to their actual headquarters or UPS may be forwarding them, but I don't know if UPS offers that kind of service.

In one letter sent out to Louisiana businesses, the letter states that all orders will be processed and shipped from their corporate office in Lansing, MI. So, we've gone from Fort Myers, FL to Lansing, MI which is over a thousand miles away.

My Call to Workplace Compliance Services

Being curious about how they would react to receiving a phone call that made more direct inquiries about their company, I decided to take a chance and give them a call. Using a Talkatone number, I called the number provided. After the initial recorded answer, I was forwarded to a woman named Emma. I asked her about who they are and what kind of services they offer in exchange for that $75 "processing fee".

Her response was fairly straightforward: they would file my report for me. I mentioned that LLCs in Hawaii can do all this in-person or online, without any additional fees, saving themselves any sort of extra charges. Since Workplace Compliance Services doesn't have an attorney or accountant in Hawaii to represent them or act on their behalf and they aren't even registered to do business in Hawaii themselves, sending them my money simply made no sense. I didn't mention I also didn't see what would stop them from just keeping my money and not doing anything for me.

She got a little cocky when I mentioned that the Better Business Bureau in Hawaii had posted a warning about those letters and she replied "The Better Business Bureau isn't the government.". In reply, I informed her that the DCCA had also posted a warning and that the DCCA is a government agency in the State of Hawaii. She had no answer to that point.

I also pointed-out that they're using a UPS mail drop in Honolulu as their mailing address, further raising suspicions about their legitimacy. If you've read this blog's other entries, you'd already know how scammers use mail drops, rather than a real address, in order to obscure their true location and prevent people from finding out where they are so that they could be served with court papers.

I asked for their actual location and was quite surprised when she gave it to me:

7718 Northport Drive

Lansing, MI 48917

A quick search reveals this to be a warehouse, rented for industrial use. There are listings of other companies using this as their mailing address and it's a pretty big place, too.

This fits-in quite well with what I noted earlier, that the orders placed with them would be processed from their office in Lansing. Of course, I'm left to wonder why they stopped putting that information on the mailers they sent out. It's probably because people are far less willing to send money out-of-State to a company they've never heard of to take care of something they can do themselves. Using a local address would make people feel easier, until they realized that it's a UPS mail drop. So, if there's no local office or representative, there's no one in your vicinity to whom you could complain or sue if the paperwork isn't filed. It just looks like they're just trying to lure people in by letting them think they're dealing with a local company, rather than outsiders.

The Company Behind the Mailings

I decided to find-out if Workplace Compliance Services is even a registered business in Michigan. Again, I was quite surprised to discover that it is and you can see their registration here. Workplace Compliance Services is actually a dba (doing business as) company under the parent corporation which is called ANS, Incorporated. There are several "assumed names" - as they are known in Michigan - operating under the umbrella of ANS, Inc:

• BUSINESS COMPLIANCE SERVICES
• FLORIDA ASSUMED NAME SERVICES
• FLORIDA FICTITIOUS NAME PUBLISHING
• MAIL PROCESSING CENTER
• NATIONAL PASSPORT EXPRESS
• WORKPLACE COMPLIANCE SERVICES

Business Compliance Services and Workplace Compliance Services were both registered on the same day, 7 February 2018.

The company is owned by Steven Fata and the address on the registration matches the address Emma gave me, so that part of it was truthful. Steven acts as president, treasurer, secretary and director for ANS, Inc.

The Unsinkable Fata Brothers

Steven Fata may be engaging in some questionable behavior with these mailings to LLCs in Hawaii, but he's not an idiot. Acting as his registered agent is attorney David R Brake of the law firm Knaggs Brake, P.C. in Lansing, MI. and David is a certified attorney in US District Courts, as well as the US Supreme Court. That kind of expertise must have come in handy, when Steven faced legal repercussions for some bullshit he tried to pull in the past.

For your own edification, here is Mr Brake's contact information:

DAVID R BRAKE, ESQ

7521 WESTSHIRE DR STE 100

LANSING, MI 48917

TELEPHONE: 517-622-0590

Back in 2013, Steven Fata got into a bit of trouble for allegedly misleading small businesses where his company, called Corporate Records Services, offered a service in exchange for money. That's not a problem in itself, except that they had no real right to charge for it.

The Better Business Bureau put out an alert on another company Steve was associated with, The Mandatory Poster Agency, Inc., which he co-owned with Joe Fata and Thomas Fata. The three brothers were also sued in 2015 by the Michigan State Attorney General who filed a suit to shutdown that company.

Steve and Thomas got into more trouble in 2014, when they got sued for alleged misleading mailings sent from their company, Corporate Records Services. Several States had initiated legal action against the Fata brothers.

Even a State as far from Michigan as Delaware was a legal battleground for Steve and his brothers. If you're such an asshole in Michigan that Delaware hates you, you're probably not going to have many friends in the other 48 States.

I have to admit that, it must be worth it for them. After all the legal trouble into which they've found themselves embroiled, they must be making enough money from it all or else they would have quit years ago.

Then again, they could just be too stupid to realize that they'll eventually always get caught and sued.

I'm Such A Rat Fink

Taking the information I've gathered about Workplace Compliance Services and collecting it all on one page (actually, the back of one of the letters they mailed to a Hawaii LLC)  I paid a visit to the offices of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs in Downtown Honolulu and handed it off to the clerk on-duty.

When I mentioned the letter from Workplace Compliance Services, she immediately reached over to a stack of papers next to her on the counter and handed me one. They've received so many complaints about those letters, that they keep a stack of the DCCA's statement and warning on the counter to handout.

But, I showed her the information I'd gathered and told her where I got it from, her eyes immediately brightened and she greedily read all the information like it was a map to buried treasure. Hawaii State attorneys are apparently already gathering information on their own for potential action against the people behind it. They may already have had the information I gave them, but it didn't hurt to offer a little help.

Hawaii State attorneys may soon get in-touch with ANS, Inc's attorney, Mr David R Brake, Esq. As I said, he's a pretty qualified attorney, but let's see how good he is if history repeats itself and he has to deal with dozens of lawyers from across the country. The Fata brothers' track record isn't exactly stellar in the courtroom.

The Fakery Continues

This is an update that I'm posting on 12 January 2019.

I just learned that Workplace Compliance Services has a website and here it is
https://www.workplacecomplianceannualreport.com/optin

I found it interesting that Steven Fata is doubling-down with his little endeavor by actually building a site for it. However, if you scroll to the bottom, the links for Contact, Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions haven't been established. They also have a Twitter page and a YouTube channel. While the Twitter account has over 90 followers, the YouTube channel has only one subscriber and the videos all have comments disabled, which isn't very brave of them.

The main website is anonymously registered through GoDaddy and the registrant is a company called Domains By Proxy, LLC. The IP address is out of California and the server is Cloudflare, a company I have previously mentioned for its affiliation with less-than-savory websites.

But, I really got a laugh out of those "testimonials" near the bottom of the page with the accompanying photos. Let's have a look:


This is actually a stock photo. Here's the source page.



Another stock photo. You can find it here.



The best-dressed of the three, though also a stock photo.

UPDATE: all of these pictures and their accompanying "reviews" have been deleted from the site.

Conclusions

The only real way to stop Steven Fata is to hit him with a fine so big that it would easily eclipse all the money he's made with Workplace Compliance Services and Business Compliance Services. If he makes more money than he loses, it only encourages him to keep going. Why stop when it's profitable?

There's a saying that Steven Fata seems to have lived by: "Stupid people deserve to get swindled.".

Workplace Compliance Services and Business Compliance Services have only been around for five months, as of this blog post. In that short amount of time, they've already achieved nationwide notoriety.

Sadly, they aren't the only people out there doing this and the only way to make them stop is to hurt them financially more than they've hurt other people. If the States don't burn these guys down to the financial ground, they'll just keep going.


Duane Browning

Jedi Meditation Made Easy

I've found numerous websites and Facebook groups founded by people who claim to be following a version of the Jedi religion from the Star Wars saga. It always amuses me how people can refer to themselves as a "Jedi Master" when there really isn't a Jedi Order to bestow such a title on anyone. Of course, I realize that these people likely gave themselves that title or it was given to them by the group to which they belonged.

That being said, I've done a bit of research on such groups (being a fan of Star Wars, myself) and decided that I have as much right as any of them to offer instruction in two methods of Jedi meditation.

So, here I go:

The Greater Meditation

This method involves a total involvement by the person meditating and requires committing yourself for a certain period of time, as opposed to the Lesser Meditation described below.

Before you become accustomed to this method, it is advised that you allow yourself to be as physically comfortable as possible. I suggest that you bathe, brush your teeth, wear comfortable clothes and have something to eat or drink, if you feel the need. Not taking care of these things beforehand may prove to be a distraction while you are meditating. You may eventually be able to meditate even if you were covered head-to-toe in mud, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Set a timer to for about twenty minutes before you begin. This is advisable when starting, though you can eventually progress to meditate for longer periods of time. As you needed to learn how to crawl before you could walk and walk before you could run, you should start with a short period of time before you begin meditating for longer stretches of time, if you feel the need to do so. I think twenty minutes is just about right. Playing a twenty minute clip of "meditation music" may be helpful for some, but it could also provide a source of distraction. Do whichever works best for you. Personally, I prefer to meditate in as quiet an environment as possible.

I advise that you sit while doing this meditation, as standing may become disorienting and tiring. However, you could remain standing, if you are comfortable with it. However, you should not lay down, as you could accidentally fall asleep while meditating.

First, assume a seated position that is comfortable. You can sit in a chair with a back or sit cross-legged on the floor, whichever you prefer. The Lotus Position can be uncomfortable and distracting to people who are not used to it, so I advise against it. When seated, keep your back straight and your hands in your lap, palms up. Set the timer and close your eyes.

Allow yourself a minute to settle-into your meditation. Simply breathe in and out for about a minute.

When you feel settled, mentally repeat this mantra in your mind without speaking it out loud:

"I am one with the Force; the Force is with me."

Yes, you first heard that line in the movie "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story".

Repeat this mantra when you breathe in. Take slow, even breaths and try not to rush.

You may find yourself becoming distracted by external stimuli. This will be a problem when first starting-out, but you'll begin to be able to block out such distractions with enough practice. Don't worry about your becoming distracted, but do not allow yourself to remain so. When you become aware that you have been distracted, mentally pull yourself away for it and return to mentally chanting the mantra,

Breathe in,

"I am one with the Force; the Force is with me.",

Breathe out,

Breathe in,

"I am one with the Force; the Force is with me."

Breathe out,

and so on.

You may find that you've lost track of time and may start wondering how much has actually gone by. Don't worry about such things.

Breathe in,

"I am one with the Force; the Force is with me."

Breathe out,

Eventually, your timer will sound. Reach over and shut it off. Remain seated for a couple of minutes to allow yourself to ease-out of your meditation.

That's it.

The Lesser Meditation

In some ways, the Lesser Meditation is more versatile than the Greater, because it can be done anywhere and for any amount of time, long or short. You could do this while seated, standing or laying down.

Like the Greater Meditation, you breathe in and mentally recite the mantra "The Force is with me; I am one with the Force." and then exhale. There is no need for you to close your eyes and I would usually advise you to keep them open during the Lesser Meditation.

This method can be done when you are waiting in line at the store, when you find yourself getting angry for some reason, you're stuck in traffic, having a hard time sleeping, etc. There is no such this as this meditation not being long enough. It simply allows you to calm and center yourself as needed.

Conclusion

These methods could each have their respective place in your life. The Greater Meditation should be done once or twice everyday, depending on your available time. Some may prefer to do it once in the morning as they get ready to start their day and once at night as they prepare for bed. A minimum of once daily is advised.

While the Greater Meditation involves a dedicated amount of time, the Lesser Meditation can help you relieve the stressful things that arise throughout your day and can be helpful in maintaining your inner balance and peace.

So, each serves an important function.

This blog entry isn't going to encourage you to go out and buy a lightsaber, Jedi robes or any books. Instead, I offer to you instruction on meditation techniques that you can easily learn and use.

If you try either of them, let me know in the Comments section how it's going for you. I will not allow anyone to try to sell merchandise in the Comments section and such comments will be deleted.

May the Force be with you.


Jedi Master Duane Browning