Ronn Torossian: Accused of underpaying his Staff.
Ronn Torossian, the founder of 5WPR had to cede his CEO role after getting exposed.
For years, Ronn denied owning Everything-PR, an industry-specific news website.
The news site had been bashing almost every PR agency except 5WPR. Although it seemed suspicious at first, Ronn Torossian always denied the possibility of having any connection.
Then, a media report came and exposed him.
It revealed that Ronn Torossian had purchased the news site in secret in 2014.
Since then, he has been using the website to boost the credibility of his PR agency while bashing all the others.
He wrote a letter to his employees saying how the business he founded would keep prospering without him and would build something again. Also, he apologized for his lack of transparency.
PRSA-NY’s board of directors has voted to condemn Torossian and 5WPR for his admission of hiding the news website’s ownership.
However, it wasn’t the first time Ronn Torossian was in controversy. The 5WPR founder has been in controversy repeatedly.
When Ronn Torossian Received Allegations of Not Paying His Staff
In 2008, Ronn filed a lawsuit against the former HR director of 5WPR. However, the lawsuit was in response to Weiss’ complaints about the business’s unethical practices.
Before filing the lawsuit, Ronn Torossian had sent her threatening emails saying “You Stupid Cunt” in the subject line.
Melissa’s lawyer told the media that she realized something was wrong when she saw Ronn miscategorizing staff and refusing to pay overtime.
All of these are violations of the law.
So, she reported them to Ronn. Instead of fixing the error, he began threatening her and told her she would lose her job if she kept this up.
According to Melissa’s lawyer, he fired her a little while later. So, she filed a small claims lawsuit against him and 5WPR.
It’s worth noting that it wasn’t the first time a 5WPR employee highlighted the discrepancies regarding the staff’s pay.
Several complaints against Ronn Torossian reveal that he doesn’t pay overtime to low-tier employees, violating labor law.
Furthermore, he has received complaints about docking employees for a full day’s pay for being 15 minutes late to work, forcing many staff members to resign. Complaints reveal that he doesn’t give his employees sufficient comp time after working 7 days in a row or more.
Below is an email Ronn Torossian sent to Melissa Weiss regarding her small claims action:
Then, he sent her this:
When Ronn sent her an email calling her a “CUNT”, he contacted her lawyer who sent a cease and desist letter to Ronn.
In response to the cease and desist letter, Ronn said this:
I don’t think there’s a lot I can say about this.
These emails can give you an idea of how professional Ronn Torossian is.
When Ronn Torosssian Faced a Defamation Lawsuit
In 2013, Ronn faced a defamation lawsuit from Dror Zoreff. The suit claimed that Ronn was posting fake stories on multiple message boards claiming Dror was a ‘con artist’ and had been indicted for embezzlement, fraud, identity theft, and money laundering.
Dror Zoreff demanded $15 million in damages in this lawsuit.
According to Dror’s lawyer, Ronn had agreed in court to stop issuing defamatory statements about him and remove all the existing false statements from the web.
It’s worth noting that a cyberattack against the businessman had begun a few months before the lawsuit. Moreover, the attack vanished right after the lawsuit against Ronn.
Dror Zoreff’s lawsuit says he was able to catch Ronn red-handed when he noticed the address on one of the slanderous posts. It was the address of 5WPR’s office.
Hence, it was easy for Dror to realize who was behind those defamatory posts.
The reason behind the conflict was the fact that Dror had lived with Ronn Torossian’s late mother for nearly 20 years.
Conclusion
Reviewing the professional history of Ronn Torossian, it’s clear that he has had a lot of controversies.
From using a news website to bash others and promote his brand, to receiving complaints for docking his staff’s pay, Ronn has been the center of many problems.
His PR firm, 5WPR has been a source of controversies as well.
Recently, one of its employees (Austin Rotter) was charged with insider trading and he had to pay over $100,000 as penalties.
Beware of such organizations and professionals.
Everybody knows Torossian is a bit too aggressive but I had no idea he is a misogynist too. That’s terrible.