How One Man Can Destroy Community Lives (The Beginning)
I write to you today not as a disgruntled employee, but as a father and disturbed member of the community; to inform you of how one man has not only recently destroyed the lives of five families, but of how he has been doing this to families in our community for over ten years.
My name is Charles Rowland. I am originally from Glendive, Montana. I started communicating with David Stavig of Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc. of Bismarck, North Dakota in early December 2009. In fact, I have a total of 113 email correspondences from David Stavig starting on December 7, 2009 up to February 18, 2010. I also have phone records of 100s of hours of conversation with David Stavig. These emails and phone records clearly show David’s intent on moving me to Bismarck, North Dakota and hiring me as his Lead Web Developer. Included in these emails, are employment forms, as well as W-4 and I-9 forms for employment.
While in Glendive, David explained to me that he currently had a Lead Developer that was not able to complete his work, and that the work he was doing was not at a specific standard. David’s exact words were less gratifying. I quickly created two websites for David to help relieve the stresses his other developers were having. A website for Dakota Center for Independent Living (http://www.dakotacil.org) and a website for Cenex of Bismarck (http://www.cenexofbismarck.com).
David agreed that he would pay the sum of $1,500.00 to help move me to Bismarck as compensation for the creation of these websites. I quickly started looking for housing, and found it. David was to pay $1,500.00 to my new landlord as part of my rent/deposit. David told me that he had sent this as a check to my landlord who lives in Jamestown via standard mail.
In mid December, I was told by David that he had fired his current Lead Developer and that I was now the Lead Developer for Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc. and would be paid $19.25 an hour. Around the same time, I received a phone call from the former IT person at Blue Spark who informed me that David was refusing to pay his employees’ wages and that the payments he had made via check had not cleared the bank. I took this as an angry ex-employee that simply wanted to get even with his boss for letting him go; I should have listened.
In early January, my soon to be landlord had mentioned that he had not received payment as promised by David. When I asked David about this, I discovered that he had not sent the check as he previously stated. Needless to say, I was more than upset. At this point I was due to be vacated from my current house within a week and there was no way to stop the wheels that were in motion. On January 3,2010 I wrote David an email simply titled “Monday” explaining that there were now trust issues in play. It was agreed upon by David, my landlord and I that we would meet at the new house on January 9, 2010 when I arrived and that David would pay the landlord then so that we all knew payment was made.
On January 9, 2010 I packed up my wife and daughter and we headed for Bismarck. Upon arrival, I met with David and my new landlord as agreed. David paid my landlord with a check for $1,500.00 also as agreed.
Monday, January 11, 2010 was my first day working in the office at Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc. This is when things really started to look suspicious.
During this first week, we obtained a new Lead IT person, I learned that the second developer there, I will call Dev2 for short, actually had little to no knowledge of website design or creation and was hired as a safety to the original Developer’s (Dev1 from now on) job, at least that is how David phrased it. Dev2 had informed me that she too had not been payed and that the checks she had gotten had all bounced at the bank. She told me stories of how she was now negative at the bank and nearly two months late on all of her bills, including her rent and how neither David nor Brian had made any attempt at correcting this. She told me that when she brought it up to David that he simply said that Dev1 had lost their money because he wanted to destroy the company.
I confronted David on this and was given a similar story on how Dev1 and IT1 had sabotaged the company and how they were “out to get” the company. I asked about the non-payment of wages and was told that he had refused to pay Dev1 and IT1 because they had not completed the work they were assigned to complete. Knowing that I had to completely redo all of their work, I somewhat agreed that they did not earn the money they were promised; however I informed David that he still had to pay them by law. David got defensive and insisted he would fight the labor board if need be and destroy the two of them, and anyone else, that tried to get in his way. David told me that because of those two “expletives” he was now paying late fees per contract to clients because their websites were not completed on time or they did not function as promised. Again, this I know was true as I was the one fixing the errors. He stated that the current pay issues were due to the current CPA and that they would be fixed very soon. Although I was extremely nervous at this point, I gave the benefit of the doubt that things would get better.
My first paycheck was due on 1/14/2010. I was not paid. On 1/18/2010, I again raised concerns that I had not received my check. I was again given the same story about how Dev1 and IT1 had sabotaged the company and were out to get David and that unless I could quickly produce websites, there was very little money. There was no mention of the CPA this time. I again insisted that as an employer he had a legal obligation to timely pay his employees in full at the time he set within the payment schedule. David again insisted he did not care, and would fight any retaliatory action.
On 1/20/2010, I left David a letter stating I was demanding my wages and would turn him into the North Dakota Dept of Labor if he did not pay. The next day I was given a check for $200.00 and told I could buy groceries and diapers now.
For the next several days, I insisted I needed the rest of my paycheck to no avail. On 1/27/2010, I was given a check for $1,000.00 to make up the rest of my previous paycheck.
During the week of 1/27/10, David fired Dev2 and I was told that I was now on salary at $20.00 an hour. My next paycheck was due to me on 1/28/2010, and I did not receive it. For the next several days, I again requested my paycheck which I had not received and insisted that I required payment to continue my employment. On 2/04/2010 I was given a check for $457.74, which was the total amount owed to me. Also on this day, IT2 informed me that Dev2 had been paid when fired but had just found out that the check had bounced at the bank.
On Thursday 2/11/2010, my wife called to inform me that the previous check for $457.74 had not cleared the bank. David gave me cash to make up for this, as I was very upset. On this day I was also owed an additional $1,600.00 paycheck, which to this date I have not received.
On Monday 2/15/2010, my landlord had called me to inform that the check he received from David Stavig and Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc. had also bounced at the bank. That night I went and cleaned out my office; it was the last day that I worked for Blue Spark.
The next morning was spent arguing over the phone with David and Brian of Blue Spark IT over the bounced checks, lack of timely payment and my family’s shrinking bank account. In fact, the next several days were spent arguing with David about the money he insisted he now did not have to pay me. David informed me that his original backer and his new backer, “were going to fix everything and that we could just continue to make pretty websites and start over like nothing had ever happened”. I called his current backer to inform her that I had not been paid and that she should be concerned that 5 out of 5 ex-employees, their wives, significant others, and/or parents are all crying “foul”. I advised her not to give David any more money.
David immediately called and lashed out in anger over my contacting his source of money. I implored to David to give me my paycheck; that my child was running out of diapers, my family was running out of food and that we had no money to pay our bills. David’s response was akin to his early speeches of how he would “destroy anyone who got in his way.”
I later took matters into my own hands by posting a story written from the point of view of my 2-½ year old daughter on the internet. Although, I admit, I may have been a bit over-dramatic in some of the description, the weight of a 2-1/2 year old is a powerful ally. My daughter does not walk around hungry, or in a urine soaked diaper. My family and my wife’s family would never let that happen. I would sell my soul before I let that happen. I have attached this story entitled “Hungry Little Lily.”
This story was posted on the website “Topix” (http://www.topix.com/forum/city/bismarck-nd/T9DMM243JTIU66O6V) under another former employee’s post (I assume Dev2) about how Blue Spark refused to pay them wages.
Under my story an individual posted a link to http://www.ndcourts.gov/publicsearch/contactsearch.aspx and informed me to search David’s name. When I searched, I was amazed to discover two pages of cases (a total of 33) against David Stavig and Brian Beckers (a total of 7). All were for collections, small claims court, writing bad checks, theft, lapse of business insurances, failed child support payments and others. This report is only a personal report, it does not include their businesses, to which I know from other employees and through David’s arrogance in bragging* that there are multiple cases against Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc and his other business, D & I Delivery, and Beckers Business Services for the same things. These cases go back as far as 1996. These men have been ruining family’s lives in this community since at least 1996 and yet somehow they are still able to operate schemes without as much as a slap on the wrist.
On Friday 2/19/2010, I went to the Labor Dept and filed a case against David Stavig and Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc for non-payment of wages. On 2/25/2010, I will be owed an additional paycheck of $1,600.00 for the final pay period I worked, which ran from 2/1/10 to 2/14/10. I am sure I will be revisiting the Labor Department for an amendment to my case at that time since David will not so much as answer my phone calls now. And in the meantime, my cupboards steadily grow bare, my daughters diapers slowly dwindle in number and the threat of utility shutoffs and cellular communication shutoff loom ever greater.
This is my situation. What about Dev1, Dev2, IT1 and IT2? What about the countless other individuals that have cases against David Stavig and his companies for the same non-payment/refusal to pay wages? How do they fare? From talking with Dev2 while on the job, I can only assume that they are no better off than my family and I.
I implore you to help me put a stop to this man. Help me stop his insatiable appetite for preying on the people of this community. Help me put a stop to his lies and deception. He has been opening businesses, not paying his employees, closing down the business, only to open another for countless years now. Please, help me save his next victim before they have their lives destroyed and their families suffer similar situations.
* David had constantly bragged how he had spent two years in the State Prison for theft. (Court documents confirm this time was served. Guilty via accomplice as he refused to cooperate with an investigation. There are records of additional time served as well). He insisted he simply would not talk and as such was imprisoned. Although this set off alarms, I was already owed money and as such stayed to attempt collection of previously stated amounts.
**I did not use the names of former employees or backers out of respect for them as I was not able to contact them before writing my story. Upon anyone’s request, I am willing to contact them to see if they would like to go public with their story also.
Direct link to David Stavig’s court rulings via the North Dakota Supreme Court website:
Direct Link to Brian Beckers court rulings via the North Dakota Supreme Court website:
(I have used the http://tinyurl.com/ service to shorten the urls as each was over 100 characters in length. This was due to the url containing search criteria. You can perform a search with names by going to http://www.ndcourts.gov/publicsearch/contactsearch.aspx and manually typing in their names. )
Previously written blog past entitled Hungry Little Lily:
posted on:
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/bismarck-nd/T9DMM243JTIU66O6V
http://www.ripoffreport.com/employers/blue-spark-it-advant/blue-spark-it-advantage-inc-3a888.htm
http://www.complaintsboard.com/bycompany/blue-spark-it-advantage-inc-a209981.html
twitter, facebook and others.
COMPLAINT AGAINST:
Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc.
348 N 35th St.Bismarck, ND 58501
David Stavig, President 701-527-5612
Brian Beckers, CEO 701-391-1595
/—- Original Story Written about the situation —-\
“Hi, my name is Lily. I’m 2 and a half years old, and I’m hungry.
My daddy worked for Mr. David and Mr. Brian at Blue Spark IT Advantage, Inc making really neat websites, but Mr. David and Mr. Brian won’t give my daddy his paychecks. Now I’m hungry and my bottom is wet because mommy and daddy can’t go to the store to get me some dry pullups. Daddy told Mr. David that my belly hurt and my bottom was wet but Mr. David still won’t give my daddy his paychecks.
Mr. David gave our landlord a check for $1500 to help us move from Montana all the way to North Dakota, but the bank said that the check Mr. David and Mr. Brian gave him wasn’t any good. Now our landlord is angry at Mr. David , Mr. Brian and my daddy. Mr. David promised my daddy and mommy we would get lots of money and have a nice life, but we don’t. Before my daddy talked to Mr. David we had a big house and I had lots of toys, now daddy says we might not have a place to live soon. I’m not sure what that means, but it makes daddy and mommy cry a lot. Daddy said that Mr. David gave him a check that the bank didn’t like once too.
My daddy keeps asking Mr. David and Mr. Brian for his paychecks but they keep not talking to him. I get in trouble if I don’t talk to mommy and daddy when they ask me too. Mr. David should get in trouble too.
My daddy said that the car people are going to take our car away soon if he doesn’t get his paycheck from Mr. David and that if they take his car away that he will have trouble getting to work when he gets a new job and that his boss there would be mad at him for that
Since Mr. David and Mr. Brian won’t give my daddy his paychecks, mommy and daddy cry a lot, and that makes me very sad so I cry too. Mommy and daddy argue now too and that makes me cry too. I love my mommy and daddy and don’t want them to fight. Fighting isn’t nice.
Please tell Mr. David and Mr. Brian to give my daddy his paychecks; I’m hungry and my bottom is wet, and my kitty cat is hungry, and my mommy and daddy are crying.”
share your thoughts and leave a comment at:
