BBB Smosska investigation handed over to state attorney general

FLORENCE -- The better business bureau is sending information on its investigation into the Smosska company, to the state Attorney General's office.

Kathy Graham, of the Better Business Bureau, says she received a call Wednesday from an out of state company that specializes in computer storage equipment. The company officials said they had been contacted by Smosska, and even flew personnel out to Florence to discuss business with Smosska.

The company official said a person working with Smosska met them in a hotel room, and said that it was too crowded for them to meet at their business office.

Graham says the Smosska representative showed the out of state company a picture of a facility that they planned to open, and told the company that they planned to have 400 employees by the end of the month, that they already had millions in grant money, and that they would purchase $600,000 worth of computer storage equipment by the end of the month.

The out of state company official told Graham that she became suspicious about the company, and began researching it on the internet, where she found several stories associated with the Better Business Bureau's investigation, and she contacted Graham.

Graham says she has only heard from a few applicants who paid the $40 assessment fee.

She said one of the applicants was referred by the unemployment office, and was called back by Smosska officials for an interview.

At that time, the applicant told Graham that Smosska officials had her sign a waiver that stated that she would not talk to anyone about what goes on at the business, if hired. Graham says she has not heard back from that applicant or any others, since that time.

Graham said she has also tried to get back in touch with Smosska officials, but all of the numbers she had for company officials are no longer in service.

Graham said she is handing her information over to the Attorney General's office because the investigation has become too large for her to handle with her limited resources.

Smosska officials spoke out about the issue, saying that they have not had an opportunity to tell their side of the story.

"Frankly we don't feel like we've gotten a fair shake by the Better Business Bureau. We are a start-up company, we're not associated with anyone that they have kind of accused us of being associated with at this point in time, and we are hoping to prove everything wrong at this point in time, and show the community what we can offer for them as Smosska, and do a great job as a start-up company," said Smosska sales director Jackie Perez.

Perez also said that the company is simply in the beginning phases, but promised that they would be opening up a company facility in the near future.

"To date we've interviewed over 80 people, and we have quite a few of them on board waiting to be hired, and we are in the process of getting our main facility opened up, it's being renovated as we speak, hopefully in about a week and a half to two weeks, we will expose our location," Perez said.

Perez said Smosska officials are not doing anything wrong, and will be happy when they can finally open up their facilities and show the people of Florence and the Better Business Bureau, that they are a legitimate company.

"I just want them to sit back and hopefully a few months from now, we can say, just look at us now," Perez said.

The Better Business Bureau said they have not heard back from the Attorney General's Office as to whether or not it would be interested in handling the case.

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