How does it feel to get fired from your job suddenly?-Naomi Kurashige, Procrastinating Writer

My ex-boss fires people when he doesn’t want to pay them, and when he didn’t pay me- I lost my home.

My friend had just begun working for a start-up firm and told me that they were looking for someone to design their name cards. I met the boss, Gabriel Suppiahand after talking, he decided that I would be able to contribute to the company as an employee. We agreed on a trial basis of 3 months of $900/month before increasing my paycheck to $2.5/month on the 4th month.

Gabriel told me upfront that if I googled him, there would be sketchy details. (His “explanation” & Here) I decided against googling him and I needed to get some stability in my life as well. My room rental was $1000/month, and I was still working some waitressing jobs on the side.

A few weeks into the job, I realized how he was taking everyone for a ride. There were 4 of us in total, 2 of whom were “investors”. Basically, they each gave Gabriel $5000 as an investment. Let me say now that neither have seen any returns, and one of them has sued Gabriel for fraud. Gabriel did not turn up for court.

I was always paid on time for the 1st 3 months, so I saw no reason to care for what he did to others. However, on the 4rd month (where I was supposed to get a raise), he started to exhibit some red flag behavior. He basically treated me like shit, demeaning me as a person (“I don’t think anyone can love you”) and (“Women who care how men dress are all whores”) and did his best to make me quit.

On the day he was supposed to pay me, he fired me. He gave all sorts of reasons and excuses not to pay me. It was only then that I decided to really Google him and find out what he did to others. Turns out it’s the same damn thing! I texted him multiple times, nicely, asking for my money. He eventually agreed to pay me $750 (HA-HA) as he feels that my work done was equivalent to that amount.

As a 4-person company, I managed all digital marketing platforms, created content and graphics, all designs, some logos, apps, updates, communication- you name it, I did everything. Pretty sure I was underpaid. Didn’t matter, because he eventually decided NOT to pay me at all because I “ran my mouth”. Asking for my money, isn’t running my mouth. I emailed him and the other “investor” and obviously didn’t get a reply from either of them. I texted him and he claims he didn’t receive the email.

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My friend who introduced me to the work was heavily pregnant and worked for 5 months for free (He never paid her). His reason for not paying her was “she didn’t do the work well”. For months he told her that he was broke and unable to pay her, but he was bragging about the expensive holidays he was going to have with his 2 kids and the expensive wedding he was going to pay for, for his niece. Oh, and a $10,000 office he paid for.. which he didn’t as they are still at the same office. He didn’t go for the holiday either.. and of course he didn’t pay for that wedding.

I never reported him or filed any case as after I got fired abruptly, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to afford my rent as I quit my other job earlier that month (I thought the raise was sufficient) and I had to deal with that first. I don’t have family so I didn’t have anyone to turn to.

It felt terrible- like yanking a deeply rooted tree out of the ground without a care in the world. I didn’t know what to do, I was so pissed my hands were cold and shaking. Even as I am writing this, I am still so pissed. I really believed in what that company could do and I loved the job. To think that this is a company that focuses on educating children from the age of 5 onwards.. what an irony.

It’s been 2 years (I was 22) since that has happened, and the company is still going strong. He has created the same company under 3-4 different names and this current company is under his sister’s name. When the other investor victim attempted to sue him, she sued his company which is technically his sister’s, so he never turned up for court. Asshole.

Here are the screenshots (taken today) from our last conversation in 2015. Thanks for reading.