American woman locks horns with 'employer'

An American woman who was reportedly accused of stealing from her employer and fleeing the country with a sum of KD 700,000 ($2.3 million) provided the Kuwait Times with her side of the story to counter allegations leveled against her. News reports claimed that the 54-year-old stole the amount from a Kuwaiti company by forging a contract with the US army. According to Dr Vanessa Davis, she was being pressured to give up her hard-earned business she headed - Around the World Service Centre. Davis said, when local company partners, Kuwaitis and Americans, failed to convince her into giving up her company, she was allegedly harassed and threatened to be jailed. "They accused me of stealing the amount and escaping the country. Well, I am here in Kuwait ready to face charges, if they have any legal charges against me," she told the Kuwait Times. "I will sue them instead for lying, falsifying documents and for reporting to police that they hired me," she retorted. Davis claims that she founded the company with her 'own sweat and blood.' "Now that I managed to turn this company into a multi-million dollar establishment, they want me out of the picture," Dr Davis argued. She narrated a set of allegations that were leveled against her, she says, began when she received contracts from the US military base. "I was introduced to them, [the partners]. I already had a good working relationship with the military camp and I had a good business running then," she reminisced. Dr Davis explained that she has been living in Kuwait since 2006. Back then, she worked under a company employed under the manpower section. In 2010, she resigned and founded her own company named 'Around the World Service Center.' Her new business venture started kind of unexpectedly. I just happened to pass on my business card to the right person where I was awarded several contracts," she said. In her words, in the past one year, Davis has been in Kuwait on her own. She was awarded the first contract from the US military in September 2010 for Afghanistan, "I got the contract without receiving any support from anybody," she noted. After winning the bid, she left and fulfilled her contract for Afghanistan's US military base. In October 2010, Davis came back seeing further opportunities for growth in this field. "When I returned, someone had introduced me to a certain Kuwaiti company that runs inside Kuwait. They made me believe they can act as the sponsor for my company, so I decided to deal with them," she said. "This company said that they can do anything; I trusted everything to them with regards to the sponsorship of my company employees," Davis revealed. In mid-October, Davis was again awarded another contract from a US military camp based in Kuwait. The prime contractor asked her to provide the camp with three people which they need November-end. She had two months to get these three people to the military base. "It turned out that the sponsor I have been dealing could not provide the sponsorship. So, I have only little time to get these people somewhere else. Up until January, I have not had three people yet at the military camp, the prime contractor warned me that I could lose the contract if I do not provide the people they need," she said. At the height of her trouble, an American agent offered help to rescue her out of her dilemma. The American runs his own company jointly with a Kuwaiti partner. "They told me that the company I was dealing with could not provide necessary visas for new recruits. So the American and his Kuwaiti partner offered help and luckily, it took them only few days to secure visas," she admitted. This company offered help, and they informed everyone that they only wanted to support me, no charges, nothing. They just want, like me, an African American to succeed. I signed no contracts with them. They informed everybody in their company that what they are doing was nothing but a support, no charges or anything?" she claimed. "All they wanted was to see me succeed. I told them that I wanted to pay for their services, but they refused," Davis said. In April 2011, Davis won another contract with the US military. This time, the contract required the employment of 29 people - 25 Americans and four belonging to other nationalities. "My contract with the US base was to provide them with manpower up until May, and since I already had confidence in this American company, I felt that there's nothing wrong with continuing to deal with them. With the help of this company, my company 'Around the World Service Center' was able to provide the US military base with the needed manpower," she continued. "I got them all on the base up till May 10. They did this though I had not signed a contract with them. This is because they said that they only want me to succeed. They want to support me," Davis said. The turning point was when Davis spoke with her American partner about the paycheck she needed to secure for the newly-hired employees. "I asked him to charge my company with every amount necessary. This is because I needed the prime contractor to provide me with the first paycheck which comes under my company's name." She was later informed that because of the services they provided, the American partner has acquired full ownership of her company. I choked and I thought he was just joking. They told me, here's what you should do -- all the people that work for you -- bring them all to my office," Davis said quoting the American agent. Vanessa has a number of people working with her for Around the World Service Center. "This American told me, from now on, you will be our employee. I said, no. I will never be an employee of my own company. But the American told me again that my company will be run from now on by his company and all the decisions will be taken by him," Davis said. This news has changed her life in the ensuing three weeks, "It was a nightmare for me because I did not want to give up my company that I had established with my own sweat," she said. In May 11, 2011 Davis met with her partner. The meeting was recorded and a copy was provided to the Kuwait Times, "During that meeting, I was clear that I would never give up my company. So, they told me, I only had five hours to transfer the visas of people I had hired through them. I have only 72 hours to give back KD 10,000 for visas and $15,000 plus 15 percent interest" she said. Since that day, according to Dr Davis, the local partner has been harassing her and her employees to sign documents to transfer the ownership of her company, "They harassed my employees at 2 am in order to force me to sign the contract and to give up my company. The people working for me do not have any hint as to what was going on because I did not tell them the exact story since it is my sole responsibility to take care of them," she said. The secret could not be kept after her staff was threatened to leave the apartment building at midnight, "I don't know what happened, but the prime contractor emailed me saying I should sign the contract with an American whom I have disagreement with. They said in an email that if I failed to do so, my contract with them will be at default. It will be awarded to Americans who I share a disagreement with," she added. "I managed to get a sponsor on June 1 just to save the contract. But the prime contractor t old me that they have already awarded the contract by default to my partners. Few days after that, Davis was arrested and imprisoned for a night, "They arrested me and charged me for not showing up to work. When I was in jail, they filed additional charges against me, including the KD 700,000 charges. They informed police that I was hired as a marketing manager," she said. "I have evidence to prove that I am not a manager but the owner of 'Around the World Service Center'," she argued. When contacted for a comment, the American partner vehemently denied forcing anybody to sign any documents. He said, "I have documents to prove that Vanessa Davis is lying; she is 100 percent a liar. I hope that she files a case against our company so that we can prove she's a liar.