Ex-Agents Wrongfully Terminated by United Wealth Education, Class Action Says

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A proposed class action lawsuit filed against United Wealth Education (UWE) claims the companies behind the credit repair and financial wellness service wrongfully fired certain workers and still owe them sales commissions.

Want to stay in the loop on class actions that matter to you? Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.

The 30-page amended complaint says that after a 2022 lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) threatened to permanently end UWE’s operations, sales agents were given the company’s “blessing” to seek work elsewhere. However, the suit claims that after being permitted to continue operations, UWE allegedly terminated the workers who had developed business arrangements with competitors in the interim before returning to work at UWE.

According to the case, Financial Education Services, Inc. and United Wealth Services, Inc.—which together do business as UWE—market their credit repair service by hiring their own customers as sales agents, who can then recruit others to work for the organization as part of a multi-level marketing program. Agents are paid based on their own sales as well as the sales of agents they recruited, the complaint explains.

In May 2022, when the district court handling the FTC’s lawsuit issued an order temporarily shutting down all business operations—an act that the companies purportedly believed spelled the end of UWE—the defendants allegedly “encouraged the agents to seek work elsewhere, including with competing companies,” the filing relays. As the lawsuit tells it, many former workers joined the ranks of UWE’s direct competitors until a following court order in July of that year permitted the company to resume operations, at which time countless agents returned to UWE.

The numerous plaintiffs in this case are former sales agents who left UWE and later rejoined the company when it recommenced business in August 2022, the suit says. In the intervening period, each of the plaintiffs developed a business arrangement with Debt Cleanse, a company that provides legal and credit services, the case explains.

Two plaintiffs’ careers ended at UWE in September of that year when they noticed their access to the computer systems and business platform had been terminated, the complaint states. The plaintiffs were allegedly told their arrangement with Debt Cleanse “violated a company policy,” and though many of the recruits they had brought on board still worked as sales agents at UWE, the two plaintiffs have not received the associated commissions entitled to them, the filing charges.

Per the lawsuit, five other plaintiffs were similarly terminated in October of that year based on purported policy violations in regard to “engaging in other network marketing programs.”

Another plaintiff, who had reached a high-ranking position as a sales agent, also discovered he had been locked out of UWE’s computer systems in September and was reportedly told by the company’s co-founder Parimal Naik that he was being fired “because he had joined Debt Cleanse,” the suit claims.

“When [the plaintiff] told Naik that many of [UWE’s] agents were working with other companies, Naik responded that working with other companies was allowed, just not Debt Cleanse,” the case reads. “Naik also stated the reason for the termination ‘is personal now.’”

The filing argues that these terminations were “arbitrary and capricious” and that UWE “selectively enforced” its policies to avoid paying fees and commissions entitled to the plaintiffs.

As of the date this complaint was submitted, the FTC’s lawsuit against UWE remains pending, the case says.

The lawsuit looks to represent any former UWE sales agents who were terminated by the defendants because of an association with Debt Cleanse and who were owed monies upon termination and thereafter.

The complaint embedded below is an amended version of a case initially filed on November 14, 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. 

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.