Baum's accountant Amelia -- an elderly Russian woman in New Jersey -- would then calculate fake
withholding taxes for each of the girls and issue a new set of checks, which were messengered back to
415 Broadway and distributed on Friday afternoon. "I asked to see a breakdown," says Lisandra fuming.
"Where's the social security, the FICA, all that stuff ? They said, 'Oh, this is just an estimate. Trust us. This
will be to your benefit.'" In a feeble attempt to disguise the larceny Brenda, the senior office manager,
began issuing pay stubs that documented the phony tax deductions (still no FICA). The small slips of
unevenly cut white paper looked as if they were produced in a kindergarten arts-and-crafts class. And the
withholding taxes that were listed were never consistent. Two shift managers making the exact same
salary and have the same deduction would end up with completely different totals.
And when the system wasn't crashing intentionally, it was crashing unintentionally. "They brought in a tech
crew that didn't know what they were doing" says Jennifer. "The router wasn't put up properly. The
stream line wasn't tested. The fire wall wasn't up. The computers weren't adequate either. They were
all mismatched. The system was overloaded and would crash constantly." "The girls are getting ripped
off,"
says Tom Hines, the editor of AVN News, a sex industry trade publication. "The end user is still
getting charged for that 20 minutes. So Baum is keeping the money. It could be a code that automatically
cuts off one of every twenty calls. They don't care, because the guy will call back. They may even be
billing for the full hour. That's not a sophisticated scam. That's out-and-out theft." "Having a sweat
shop like this is not common,"
Hines continues "It's very much on the periphery of adult internet. I've
never come across this. I wouldn't even include these gumbahs in the industry. This illustrates perfectly
how anyone can become an adult webmaster. You put up some cameras, you hook up to a domain and set
up the merchant account and -- presto ! You're a pornopreneur." The most blatant fraud perpetrated
at Baum Multimedia, though is: the forging of checks. Every Thursday the girls' BBR Services
payroll checks arrive by FedEX. Cecilia, admittedly, a Chilean immigrant who worked as the Baum
Multimedia office manager would then rubber-stamp the back of each of the checks and
under Fred
Baum's direction forge each of the girl's signatures. Baum would then walk down Broadway to
the Merchant's Bank and deposit the falsely endorsed checks into the Baum Multimedia LLC. account.
It was to the point where the business did 1,500 minutes and there were 800 missing." "A girl who works
an eight-hour shift gets maybe twelve shows," explains Lisandra, another former Baum girl. "Of those
twelve shows, three or four of them are frozen or knocked out. At the end of the shift you'd count your
total minutes from the host web site and you'd discover that the shows that had complications wouldn't
show up."

ToTaLLy CoOL ®
written by Rene Chun
Model

"The

Sweat Shop"

No part of this Works, may be published or
reproduced in anyway without expressed
permission: in writing from the copyright
holders. c. 2002 All rights reserved.
TotallyCool.net
Health & Beauty
Space
Science & Technology
Computers
Electronics & Toys
Parenting
Art
The Well
New York City:
The Big Gotham
Letters & Comments
The Showroom Circuit
Interviews- Legends
On The Fashion Front

Hot Shots
Political Observations
Recipes
- For Community News -
National / International
Sports
Seasonal Fun
A Perfect 10
The Environment
Features
Social Issues/Concerns
Totally Cool (r) Bites
Games
The Fashion Statement
The 2 Minute Blurb
Teen Concerns
Young Adults Concerns
Classified / Personal
Real Estate/ Housing
/ Rights / etc
Living
Sounds & Scenes:
The Good Read
Books & Magazines
The Profiles
Pretty Women
GentleMen
Pets
Philosophy / Spiritual /
The Inner Self
What In The
World Is Totally
Cool (r) To You
History
TC Products
Special Offers
Messages
People Helping People
Vacations
The Photo Booth
Video Editing
Critics Corner
N.Y.C. Landscapes
Museums
The PR
TV
New Laws
Quiz
Film and Video
Music
Accessories
Footwear and Headgear
Totally Cool (r) Kids
Coming To America
Kids Toys
Totally Cool ®
The MagaZine

The Music Credit:
Was Me
Stacia
Raystone Records

plus ...

For A Look Around
RED Links Are Hot !
"The Official Editorial Authority"
c. 2002 - Totally Cool ®.
All RIghts Reserved.

With Every Turn Of The Page
There Is A Song.
Stay Tuned - There Is
Much.
Special Section
What To Say

Happy Birthday
From The Heart.

The MagaZine

The 7th On Sixth -
C.F.D.A. Scandal

"Fraud" would be an understatement.
You need a Java-enabled browser to hear audio clips on this page.