O.K. this story is going to take a little telling. It's also a little unbelievable even coming from Jay... Apologies for the length but it needed to be told in all it's glory.

First let's start with the background... As of the last postcard Jay was no longer a graduate student at the UofO. He'd taken his Masters and was hitting the job market. With the help of Judy and Frank he put together a professional resume. Then Jay hit up all his contacts, hit up everyone he knew, hit up people who were even casual acquaintances. Jay applied to everything even remotely appropriate. About 200 resume/applications later and not a single offer. Not even a single interview. Jay's even e-mailed Jeff Bezos (president of Amazon) asking about work - got a favorable reply but still no offer/interview. Even for someone as optimistic as Jay this was a bit depressing.

News from Jay's friends who were also on the job market was no better. Jim, Jay's research partner from the UO, had one offer after about 3 months of job hunting in Seattle. The day he was going to sign his employment contract with the UW, the UW announced a hiring freeze. Thadd, who also worked with Jay & Jim at the UO, after looking in Seattle for a couple of months, decided to expand his job search to include any location. Thadd found a position in Las Vegas. He took the position, moved down to Vegas, 2 weeks later Thadd was laid off. Walid, another grad student from the UO, was laid off from a position he'd had for a year when the tech recession hit. He found a new position after about 6 months of looking but by this time his immigration paperwork was messed up. So he went back home (France) to get his visa in order. 3 days after it got straightened out, but before he could come back to the states, he was laid off.

So all this sounds really bad. My story's even more amazing.

So, in January a friend of Judy's asked what I was doing jobwise. Judy said I was looking for work and Judy's friend arranged a meeting with her employer, a man named Skipper. Judy's friend had just been hired by Skipper to be then marketing director for a new animation company. Apparently, Skipper was an animator who'd been in the business for 30 or 40 years. He'd previously set up a company and run it until the mid 1990s when he sold it to Hannah Barbara. The reason he sold his company was so he could spend more time with his wife who had come down with cancer. She passed away a couple of years ago. He then took off on his sailboat and sailed around the world. About a year ago he came back to the Puget Sound area.

He moved back into his old neighborhood and at one of the neighborhood block parties (these are common events in Seattle) he met Anna. Anna works at the Fred Hutch Hospital (it's the major cancer research center in the Seattle area) as an oncology researcher. After dating for a while they got married. She thought he needed to get out and do things and convinced him to set up this new animation company.

Skipper, apparently only hires people via personal introductions. Judy's friend provided this introduction and he interviewed me. Going in I was a little confused as I didn't have much of a background on him/his companies. After a net search all I could find on Skipper was information about his new company, nothing about the old one or any other information about him. But that sometimes happens with people who haven't been active in society for the last 6 or 7 years. The exact position I was applying for was also a little unclear but it turned out to be the Technical Director for his companies (a 2D animation company, a 3D animation company and a Website design company.) There was also an element of Project Management and development work, not that uncommon in a small (15 person) company.

Skipper's companies in addition to doing small web & animation jobs, had one very large contract. This contract was for an animation job with an aviation parts supplier creating 3D models of every part of a 727. This project was going to take about 2 years and eventually result in a 3D parts catalog where you could zoom in on a 727 all the way down to the individual components. The purpose of this interface, was to create a parts catalog that would allow mechanics to identify parts (for ordering) language independant. I was skeptical of the Skippers companies ability to complete this project as I didn't see anyone with the expertise to create the needed software and more importantly to manage the project. However, it wasn't the project that I was being interviewed to deal with. Skipper said he'd hired another person who was exclusively managing this project.

After the first interview, he asked if I could go on a second interview where I'd act as his technical advisor on a client meeting. This would give me the chance to see the offices on the Olympic Peninsula, spend the day talking with Skipper and we could see how each other worked. The customer meeting went well and a sale of a web site with some back end technology was made. I saw the offices in Port Hadlock (NE corner of the Olympic Peninsula) and met some of the other employees. At the end of the day he offered me the position.

I thought about this pretty hard but decided to turn it down. This was especially difficult due to the state of the job market and the number of other offers I'd had (0). However, I decided that I didn't want the position and didn't really like Skipper enough to want to work with him for any extended period of time. The reasons I didn't want the position were 1) It would involve a great deal of travel (>1/week) to the Olympic Peninsula (at least 2.5 hours each way) and being the technical director for a small company wasn't what I wanted to do. I'd done that for T.T.I. for about a decade. The reasons I didn't like Skipper were that he was cheap in odd ways(he didn't pay or offer to reimburse me for my Ferry parking on the interview for example) and he had abrasive elements to his personality. So I turned down the position.

A few day's later he asked if I'd be willing to work part time for him. I thought this odd as he'd said he only hired people full time but I knew he badly needed my skills (having met the rest of his team) to complete the task for the client we'd met earlier. So I said I would work for him P/T but only on very restrictive terms. They included: 10 hours/week at $37.50/hour any other hours above that would be billed at $75/hour. Any trips to the Peninsula would have an automatic 5 hours added for travel time. I would not use/install/support non-licensed software (Remember the strangely cheap comment? I'd received information that he didn't have proper licenses for ANY of his software and I wasn't going to get involved in his problems there.) Lastly, I will be actively looking for employment and might need to resign at any time. I didn't really expect him to take the offer with all the restrictions I provided, however he did. So during January I worked for Mystery Bay Web Design and Skippers other affiliated companies.

Things started getting odd in Feb. Judy's friend was having a hard time getting paid. At a meeting at the Seattle offices Skipper told the other employees that paychecks were being delayed. He said that he'd transferred the money into the payroll account but apparently it wasn't transferred as the bank (on the Peninsula), required a in person signature for a transfer of over $10,000. This made sense so I went about work as scheduled. Nothing further unusual occurred except Skipper told me something that I knew (via reading people, information from other employees and inconsistencies with his other statements/actions/knowledge) wasn't true. He said that he had 5 software licenses for Macromedia Designer. I look at him in partly concealed disbelief. However, He didn't try to have me do any of the installation work on the new machines, so I had no cause to obejct.

A few days later I find out that the major contract (the animation project) has been cancelled due to unforeseen financial difficulties with the parts seller (the client.) I then find out that the company is going to reorganize for the next 2 weeks and is suspending operations. What disturbed me the most though was that Skipper had told everyone except for myself. I found out via people I knew in the company but not from Skipper. Skipper was having me work on the project for the client we'd met with on the second interview (and some smaller work) and keeping in regular contact with me about the project. He didn't let out a hint of anything being wrong or amiss.

The next day I find out that the Seattle offices have been closed down. I don't know this first hand as I've been working on the clients project out of my home office (the Seattle office was waiting for Millenium to come in and install cable.) This made it even worse that Skipper still hadn't told me this, even though we're still in regular communication regarding the projects I'm working on. I decide to see how far he's willing to go without telling me and how far in the dark he wants to keep me. So I ask him to authorize an expenditure (a reference text) that I need for working on the project. He does so and even mentions that it will be useful by other employees on future projects. So on the next day I contact the client to arrange our presentation at the end of the week. This is the meeting where we are to present the alpha version of the site and the customer on delivery will pay the second installment of the contract.

My guess at this point is that Skipper is desperate to keep me working, so that the company can receive an influx of funds from the customers second payment. I've assumed that he probably doesn't want to tell me about the companies problems for fear that I'll cut and run. So since I still haven't been told (and Skipper thinks I don't know) about the office being closed and the company shut down for reorganization, when I contact the client I do as we'd agreed. I schedule our next meeting at the Seattle office. I do cc Skipper on this, as I normally would with major meetings so he knows we'll need to use the conference room.

At this point Skipper contacts the customer directly (extremely unusual since at the earlier meeting I had been the sole point of contact with the client as I was the project manager) and attempts to reschedule the meeting. He "informs me" in a later e-mail that he's contacted the customer and since it would be easier for the customer and another of our employees to meet on the Olympic Peninsula, he's rescheduling the meeting to happen at the customers office. As you can imagine I'm not really thrilled about this, much closer to pig-biting mad!

Going to the peninsula is a huge consumption of my time and I've strongly mentioned my desire to not do this. In addition, I've already contacted him about going over my allocated hours so he didn't have the hours of my time to use anyway! The reason for my hours inflating was my lack of ability to contact the other people who were supposed to be working on the project. As I was responsible for the project and the work needed to be done for the presentation, I had to do it. Finally, as a P/T employee he doesn't have the right to schedule my hours without asking me first (as I strongly informed him in an e-mail.) Thankfully, the customer just wanted a conference call meeting so the issue was resolved. It did show me that Skipper would do about anything to keep me from knowing the state of the company, no matter what it cost me.

Later that day, I finally get in touch with one of the people who was supposed to be working with me on the project. Apparently, Skipper had blocked his company e-mail and so he wouldn't recieve any of my messages in the last few days asking him to contact me. At the same time Skipper was assuring me of having 8 hours of this employees time (for work on the project.) I found out during this call that Skipper hadn't made good on the promised paychecks. Also, no one was working at the company aside from myself and it didn't look like the company was going to be a continuing concern.

Skipper had told the other employees that the checks would be available the next day. The next day the company administrative person told the employees that no paychecks would be available for the foreseeable future.

At this point, I was stuck with a moral decision. My employer has grossly and repeatedly lied to me. He had intentionally kept necessary company information from me. He authorized expenses that he had no intention of reimbursing. In short he's behaved highly immorally. As a side note he hasn't paid me nor did it look like he ever would. The client on the other hand has behaved extremely honestly and been forthright with me, and is an all around likeable person. My employer wants me to go to the client meeting and present the work we've completed and discuss what we'll be doing in the next stages of the project for the client. Based on these factors the client will make the next payment to the company (Skipper preemptively billed the client.)

The moral quandary I had was as follows: I couldn't morally tell the customer about work we would be doing for him in the future knowing that the company was about to financially collapse and that neither I nor any other employee of the company would be performing that work. However, professional ethics prevented me from informing the client about the financial state of the company. After talking this over with several friends who are knowledgeable in the area, we came to the conclusion that I had no choice other than to resign.

So I sent in an e-mail of resignation, effective immediately. I also sent a notice out to the client informing him that I had left the company and would not be able to attend the meeting. At about the same time as I sent these messages an announcement went out to everyone in the company (except me as I was still being kept uninformed so I'd meet with the client) that the company was declaring bankruptcy. It also mentioned that Skipper would notify the current clients, which he of course did not.

So over the weekend we're all talking at Judy's and the whole Skipper story comes up. The general consensus is that he's a bad businessman/entrepreneur who had some moral problems especially as relates to paying his employees. I propose the theory that we can't trust anything about him as we don't have any corroboration for anything he said. I suggested that he might not even be Skipper Arnold, might never have had a wife with cancer we don't really know anything for certain. Granted I was just going off instinct considering that he'd repeatedly lied to me about several major issues. The phrase "the truth is more fantastic than fiction" comes to mind as I write this.

So I'm busy providing nice neat documentation as a courtesy to the client so that his disruption is minimized by the whole Skipper thing (all without saying why I resigned or anything about the company.) I did this as I felt an obligation to make sure the client wasn't harmed, although I couldn't work the client until he received permission from Skipper for myself and my associate to work on the project directly as independent contractors (which the client did eventually receive.) So as I'm talking with my associate with whom I'd worked on the project earlier, when news comes in from Mystery Bay's administrative person. Apparently there is no money in any of the accounts and it looks like there will be precious little to divide up in bankruptcy for our back wages.

The next news is even more interesting. Skipper met with his wife. He told her that his name wasn't really Skipper Arnold, it was Conrad Grohs. He is a con man with a whole bunch of outstanding warrants for his arrest and is skipping town (I wonder if that's where he took his name "Skipper" - look at the other aliases they're similar.) Apparently, everything he's said is false, the prior wife with cancer, the other company his background, everything. There's no way to distinguish fact from fiction.

Then the tale gets even more interesting. The FBI jumps in. Apparently he's not just any con man he's a major con man. On the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives list. Apparently he's spent the last 30 years conning rich widows with a two part scam. He pretends to be a Dr., Professor or other Professional and finds a widow with a large life insurance settlement. He then marries her. That however is only the beginning of the con. He then sets up a company with her money, runs it for a few months all the while siphoning money from her accounts into the company accounts. He then sucks all the money out the company accountsand then disappears. And he doesn't just do this scam with one person at a time, he runs it with multiple women simultaneously! We think there are three women he was running this con on in the Puget Sound area.

Apparently in this case, things fell apart too quickly for Skipper. The FBI & local authorities were too close on his tail (being tipped off by one of the women.) So it looks like he didn't have a chance to establish a new identity and to disappear like planned. Possibly he really did get harmed by a customer (the big one?) or several smaller ones not paying him his final payout (I know the one I was dealing with didn't make their second payment.) So for whatever reason instead of running, with the authorities close on his heels, he turned himself in. On Valentines Day.

No, I'm not kidding about any of this. Below are links to news stories from our major local news station and the FBI most wanted fugitives page for February. I've mirrored the pages so this record stays good in case the other sites change their links in the future. BTW Conrad "Skipper" Grohs has been deported to FL where he has about 40 outstanding warrants on for fraud and related crimes. If FL ever gets bored with him, there are a bunch of other states that want to "talk" with him (enough to extradite him) about charges like fraud and bigamy. After everyone else gets through with him eventually he might return to WA to stand trial but it'll be a long time before that happens.

King 5 Report: <King 5 Site> <Mirror>
King 5 Follow-up<King 5 Site> <Mirror>
FBI Fugitive Wanted Poster: <FBI Site> <Mirror>

So what did I learn from all this and what's the moral of this mess? About the only thing I can come up with is "always check to make sure your employer isn't on the FBI's most wanted list."