Former employees of protein biomarker discovery firm NextGen Sciences have sued the company for failing to pay compensation they claim is owed them.
In a suit filed last month in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division, the six employees – Eric Simon, Bhavin Patel, Andreas Jeromin, Hiroshi Saito, Christine Verellen, and Joanne Tobias – alleged that the company and its officers Leif Hamoe and Thomas Borcholte failed to pay them wages owed for the period Aug. 1, 2012, through Oct. 10, 2012, totaling $115,002.
According to their complaint, the plaintiffs are seeking judgment against the defendants, "jointly and severally, in an amount in excess of $75,000 together with exemplary and statutory damages and their actual costs and attorney fees."
The plaintiffs said in their complaint that in June 2012 the defendants told them that payroll would not be met, and June compensation was not paid until July. July compensation was then not paid until August.
No compensation was paid for August or September, the plaintiffs alleged, noting that they "continued providing services" during these months "in reliance upon the representations and assurances of Defendants that they would receive compensation for their services at their contractual rates."
They were then laid off "on or around October 10, 2012," and have yet to be paid the compensation owed them, they said.
In October, NextGen Sciences' parent company NextGen Group announced that due to an inability to secure additional financing it would likely take steps to wind down its business unless it was able in the near future to find a buyer for NextGen Sciences (PM 10/26/2012).
The company noted at that time that it had not yet received any acceptable offers for NextGen Sciences and that even if it were sold, "it is unlikely that it will generate sufficient cash to settle all the company's outstanding creditors in full."