Russell Sickles claims he helps people with disabilities gain employment but what he really does is take advantage of people with disabilities to make money for himself.
He is very persuasive, telling people that this it is the wave of the future to do customized employment, getting them to take out large loans so that they can buy a small business equipment in the hopes that the business will grow and give the person a job. The equipment may not even be used by the disabled person and the disabled person is on the hook for the loan. Recently he conned a young man with an intellectual disability (very low cognitive and deemed by the state to not be able to take care of himself) into buying $17,000 of equipment for a goat farm where he works, but does not need the equipment for the job.
It get worse...if the young man loses his job there is a signed agreement that the goat farm has the option to keep the equipment or not, if they want to keep it, they need to make a monthly payment (unspecified amount could be a dollar). If the young man can't pay the loan, the loan will be considered income and he will be responsible for paying taxes and losing social security benefits.
Oh no..it gets even worse...Russell Sickles gets the disabled person to sign a release for social security and then tells them to sign paperwork for the PASS program. There is a tremendous amount of pressure put on the disabled person to sign these papers. Russell tells the client that the PASS program will pay the loan, but this is a lie, it doesn't work that way. It is thought that he is trying to become the payee for the person so he can get control of their social security payments.
Russell goes after people with social security benefits and picks the most vulnerable people such as those with an intellectual disability.
If this man approaches you or anyone you love, PLEASE run the other way!!
Note: This man has fooled large agencies into thinking he is legitimate and works for Griffin Hammis as a consultant.
Griffin-Hammis Associates, LLC Reviews
Russell Sickles claims he helps people with disabilities gain employment but what he really does is take advantage of people with disabilities to make money for himself.
He is very persuasive, telling people that this it is the wave of the future to do customized employment, getting them to take out large loans so that they can buy a small business equipment in the hopes that the business will grow and give the person a job. The equipment may not even be used by the disabled person and the disabled person is on the hook for the loan. Recently he conned a young man with an intellectual disability (very low cognitive and deemed by the state to not be able to take care of himself) into buying $17,000 of equipment for a goat farm where he works, but does not need the equipment for the job.
It get worse...if the young man loses his job there is a signed agreement that the goat farm has the option to keep the equipment or not, if they want to keep it, they need to make a monthly payment (unspecified amount could be a dollar). If the young man can't pay the loan, the loan will be considered income and he will be responsible for paying taxes and losing social security benefits.
Oh no..it gets even worse...Russell Sickles gets the disabled person to sign a release for social security and then tells them to sign paperwork for the PASS program. There is a tremendous amount of pressure put on the disabled person to sign these papers. Russell tells the client that the PASS program will pay the loan, but this is a lie, it doesn't work that way. It is thought that he is trying to become the payee for the person so he can get control of their social security payments.
Russell goes after people with social security benefits and picks the most vulnerable people such as those with an intellectual disability.
If this man approaches you or anyone you love, PLEASE run the other way!!
Note: This man has fooled large agencies into thinking he is legitimate and works for Griffin Hammis as a consultant.