Swanson
MINNEAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) - Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against a job-search company that allegedly didn't deliver on its promises to help unemployed people find jobs.
Named in the suit were The Arthur Group, Inc., and its owner and chief executive officer, Barry Trimble, for allegedly baiting unemployed Minnesotans looking for jobs into paying up to $4,500 for assistance in finding a job and then not living up to the company's promises.
"With our unemployment rates at record-high levels, many people are out of work and looking for jobs," Swanson said.
"It is unconscionable for a company to take advantage of people's understandable trepidation about being out of work by charging them hefty fees but giving them little help."
Swanson alleges that The Arthur Group and Trimble obtained leads in the job market by placing ads for supposed executive-level jobs on Internet websites and from resumes that job seekers posted on Internet job boards.
The lawsuit alleges that once The Arthur Group made contact with job seekers, it charged them up to $4,500 for an array of services. Some of those who paid were tricked into thinking they would get their money back by an employee, were told they would receive unpublicized job openings and would get advanced interview training, though none of this was ever done, Swanson said.
Swanson alleges that the defendants violated the state's consumer fraud and deceptive trade practices laws and seeks restitution, injunctive relief, and civil penalties.