River City Mortgage & Financial, LLC Lying, Corrupt, Dishonest, Crooked, Disloyal Business Owners and Managers Maple Grove Minnesota

I was a former Mortgage Banker for River City Mortgage. Before joining River City I was a Mortgage Broker with a small company called Minnesota Mortgage Network. The owners of this company were Jason Ek, Jim Hanson, and Rob Barnheiser.

I was the longest tenured and highest producing loan officer for them since day one! As a result of the mortgage industry changes the owners of MN Network were forced to merge with Centennial Mortgage as a net branch. Centennial ended up being shut down by the department of commerce for illegal and fraudulent activity. As a result, I was not paid my hard earned commissions by Centennial or the owners of my net branch which totaled roughly $6,000!

Being the loyal and honest employee that I am, I continued to stick with Jason Ek, Jim Hanson, and Rob Barnheiser when they decided to join River City Mortgage & Financial. Even after joining River City I continued to be the most consistent producing employee they had.

After working at River City for 4 months there was a supposed mandatory company meeting held on Aug. 19, 2008. I was unable to attend this meeting due to a prior commitment, however, I made Jason Ek aware prior that I was not going to attend. He assured me that it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

After the meeting, all loan officers who missed the meeting were discharged except me. As a result of my dedication and loyalty to Jason Ek, Jim Hanson, and Rob Barnheiser I was put on probation. In fact, I had a meeting with Rob Barnheiser informing me of the probation.

On Aug. 20th I received an unexpected email from Scott Miller, an owner of River City, stating that one of my clients called in complaining about not being able to get a hold of me when in reality I was in contact with that client numerous times each day.

Dumbfounded by the news, I was shocked at the email. I responded in a polite yet assertive email to Scott Miller explaining the situation. After that, the company was shorting me on excessive fees and rate lock periods that was taking money away from my commissions on that file. This was nothing new since the company screwed up my commission reports every single month and continuously tried to short change me on my earned money.

I sent an email in frustration to the marketing director voicing my concern for being shorted month after month on my commissions. I guess this email got forwarded to the primary owner, Louis Olson.

The next morning I went into the office I was told I was being fired as a result of the emails I sent the previous day. Jim Hanson specifically said to me that he did not want to let me go, but Louis Olson was making him as a result of my emails.

This wasn't a problem, until after I left the company. I have been unemployed due to the economy since the end of August in 2008. I have 2 college degrees from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. As a result, I filed for unemployment benefits to help survive considering I have a mortgage and bills.

I was deemed ineligible for benefits because the company lied about how I was discharged from the company. Their high priced corporate lawyer and owners were representing River City and stated that I was terminated for missing the meeting and lied about knowing anything about my probation and that I informed them about not attending the meeting.

I have never even filed for unemployment benefits before, and was overwhelmed by the entire process. The unemployment judge upheld the ineligible decision in my appeal. The conference call in which the appeal was conducted was unfair and fraudulent because the attorney and the River City Managers/Owners (Jason Ek, Jim Hanson, Brian Bitzan, and Nancy Feckler) were lying directly to the judge. However, me not being a lawyer and never having gone through the process before, I was unprepared to prove that I was in the right and deserved to collect unemployment benefits.

I was not terminated from River City for missing the meeting, which would have made me ineligible for benefits as a result of a violation of company policy. I was discharged because I voiced my opinion and frustrations regarding the unorganized and shoddy way the company operated in my emails. I did not violate any company policy, which is why I am eligible to receive unemployment benefits.

To be treated like this by River City Mortgage, Jason Ek, Jim Hanson, and Rob Barnheiser after being such a loyal and trustworthy employee of them solidifies how corrupt these people are and verifies that anyone doing business with them should reconsider.

Jim Hanson is a former drug dealer, which I found out after leaving the company. Jason Ek is a machine tool salesman now. And Rob Barnheiser owns a cleaning business. I would extremely urge anyone who comes across these people to steer away from doing business with them in addition to getting any kind of a loan from River City Mortgage. They are liars and scoundrels.

If anyone knows of an attorney who will take my case to recover my past commissions from these people that I'm owed as well as my rightfully owed unemployment benefits I would be extremely appreciative. In addition, please spread the word about these crooks so that other potential employees and clients do not get screwed over like I did!

Adam
Roseville, Minnesota
U.S.A.