Managers of Hometown Lenders' top-performing branch, who broke from the company
In a recently filed suit, Anthony Perri Sr. and Anthony Perri Jr. , a father and son duo who ran the Moketa, Illinois branch, accuse Hometown of failing to pay their final compensation, stopping payments on paychecks and failing to reimburse "hundreds of thousands of dollars of approved expenses."
The lender allegedly stopped reimbursing the two plaintiffs for branch expenses in 2022, and because of this, more than $500,000 have been fronted by the father and son on Hometown's behalf to keep their branch running, states the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The expenses included utilities, vendor services and Perri Jr. footing a child support payment for a branch employee, who was one day away from losing his visitation privileges. The suit claims Hometown withheld the amount due for child support from the employee's paycheck but failed to send the payment to the State of Illinois.
The former employees claim that Hometown and its executives, including William Taylor, the company's CEO, were "personally involved" in the decision to not pay monies owed and also to not fund employee contributions to the company's compensation plan, despite money being withheld from respective paychecks. What happened to the money withheld from employee paychecks remains unknown.
Hometown's legal counsel would not provide commentary regarding the matter Tuesday, noting that it was his last week at the company. Meanwhile, an executive assistant wrote Hometown considers "former branches to be friends and will endeavor to solve all concerns fairly and amicably."
The office, which Perri Jr. and Sr. ran their branch out of, is also in question. The former employees allege Taylor "unjustly enriched himself" by refusing to transfer the title of the office to them, as was outlined in a prior agreement.
According to the suit, the father and son duo wanted to purchase the office with monies from their branch account, which Hometown agreed to. Hometown used approximately $100,000 from the Illinois branch account for the down payment on the property. Tony Perri spent an additional $100,000 of his own funds to renovate the property, the suit states.
The parties agreed the title of the property would be transferred to the Perri's, but it never was. Instead the lawsuit claims the title was transferred to Pegrum Creek, a limited liability company owned solely by Hometown's CEO.
"Neither Billy Taylor, Pegrum nor Hometown contributed to the purchase, rehab and/or maintenance of the property," the lawsuit reads. "Hometown has failed to make mortgage and common area maintenance payments despite charging the branch for the same."
The plaintiffs are seeking their final compensation, plus interest, statutory penalties and attorney's fees, their suit said.
Further, they are asking the court to order Hometown to identify and account for any and all withholdings from the plaintiffs respective paychecks, the monies due to Tony Sr. and Tony Jr. from the Branch Account and all other relief that this court deems reasonable and just.
Concurrently, two other lawsuits were lodged against Hometown by former branch managers in early August. Both suits seek for the lender to reimburse expenses and pay out commissions owed.
A suit filed in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, by Jason Wiggins, a former branch manager at HomeTown, is seeking for the company to reimburse him for almost $50,000 in damages. Meanwhile, a similar suit filed in the Court of Common Pleas of Northampton County, Pennsylvania by Luke Pickel demands judgment in $33, 325 to cover expenses and earned commission.
