Ben Behrouzi Bombshell
Since BrokerScience first began covering ePerks and ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi, we have received a lot of reader submitted information in the form of: stories of first hand experiences with ePerks / Ben Behrouzi (as employees and customers), emails, voice mails, and other miscellaneous information and data relating to Ben and company. We have published virtually none of it and do not plan on publishing it in the future unless it is pertinent to the facts involved in our coverage. The following voice mails are an exception. They help establish a pattern of legal harassment by Ben Behrouzi that goes all the way back to his days at Reply.com.
One common theme among all current and former employees we speak to that have worked under Ben Behrouzi at Reply.com or ePerks.com is that they fear the consequences involved with sharing their story. The legal harassment and worse that ePerks critics such as Vlad Zablotzkyy, Dennis Pease and BrokerScience have endured are a testament to those concerns.
One person that is not afraid of Ben Behrouzi is former Reply.com employee Scott Chestnut. Scott worked under Ben Behrouzi (who was the Chief Technology Officer despite the fact that he was still in school working on a philosophy degree) as a Senior Network Engineer. While building out what was to be a million dollar network, Scott realized that working for Ben was an unworkable situation, so he walked out in frustration. The following voice mail from Ben Behrouzi chronicles Ben’s threats to blackball Scott and insure he is unable to gain employment, insinuating this will affect him for life and have deep reaching effects.
“My new goal in life is going to become to ruin your name across this entire East Bay……..you can take that to the bank, you can put your future kids or your girlfriend or whoever you want to put on it.” - ePerks CEO, Ben Behrouzi to employee that left the company
Ben Behrouzi Threatening to Blackball and “Ruin the Name” of Former Employee
Later, Ben left another message regarding a vendor, CDW. He again makes false allegations and threatens legal action. Even though he claims he is in the process of preparing legal action, no legal action ever took place, an experience similar to what others have faced.
Ben suggests “using dollars” to make up for the indiscretions he accuses Scott of, similar to the verbiage he used when he threatened BrokerScience and tried to set up a conference call to discuss “damages“.
At some point after Scott walked out, Ben and his team were reportedly let go from Reply.com and Scott was again offered his position back at Reply.com.
Ben Behrouzi Threatening Legal Action Against Former Employee / No Action Was Ever Filed
Conclusion. These voice mails are more evidence documenting a pattern of legal harassment and threats by Ben Behrouzi against anybody that gets in his way. While I am not familiar with the legality of of blackballing I am somewhat certain that “ruining someone’s name” for the purposes of insuring they cannot obtain employment is nothing short of defamation. Ben’s actions are consistent with the lack of ethics we have seen ePerks and iHype exhibit. There is now no question that in our opinion, Ben Behrouzi operates without an ethical or moral code.
Feedback: Do you have a negative or positive ePerks / Ben Behrouzi story you would like to share as an current or ex employee, colleague or customer? We can’t guarantee we will publish it, but appreciate your feedback and it may help bloggers like Vlad Zablotzky fight against Ben Behrouzi and company. Contact us here.
Related BrokerScience ePerks Coverage:
ePerks.com: A Case Study in Greed and Self-Imposed Brand Destruction
ePerks CEO Ben Behrouzi Insinuates Legal Action Against BrokerScience, Cites “Damages”
Ben Behrouzi Updates Company “Values” and “Culture” Web Pages. Only One Problem: They’re Stolen
ePerks.com Link to Vlad Zablotzkyy
Ben Behrouzi / ePerks.com: A Case Study in Self Induced Search Engine Brand Destruction
BrokerScience Coverage of iHype.com Launch
BrokerScience Acquires BenBehrouzi.com
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June 12th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Awesome! I knew it was only a matter of time for Ben’s past behavior to come back and bite him!
June 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
At this point, nothing Mr. Behrouzi does could surprise me. Nothing like leaving incriminating evidence behind. If this sordid mess was an episode of CSI or Law & Order, he’d have been busted in the first 15 minutes of the show. I can hear Gil Grissom and Jack McCoy now: ” You bothered me with this?? This is an hour show…when do we get to the hard part??”
June 13th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
an hour show…. laughing out loud………
June 13th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Good grief. This guys just seems unbalanced. My understanding is that ePerks is running on investment. How do investors feel about their monies being spent on personal vendettas and defending a man that clearly cannot control himself. Wouldn’t these legal funds be better spent on rehabbing the image of the company or advertising? At the end of the day, your business is judged in dollars and cents not on how many lives you can destroy on the road to failure.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
REBlogGirl: Hey you! I belive ePerks is 100% owned by Ben / Brabus Ventures….. you are absolutely right, investors would not tolerate this, period. Since it is his own money, he is free to self-destruct as he chooses. I keep saying this over and over, this is ONLY getting started….once the story goes national (almost there….) the real damage begins. This is the tip of the iceberg….
June 13th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Ha. All his own money? That’s even funnier - let him spend on this frivolity. He is chasing his tail, causing an avalanche of ill will in the blogosphere (people with forums to voice their opinions and audiences that listen to them), spending all his dough on legal fees and ruining his chances at future VC dollars. Think about it- a good PR firm and a Reputation Mgt company could have swept all of this under the rug and smoothed everything over in a matter of weeks. But now things are so out of control, I can’t see this ending well.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
REBlogGirl: Apparently Ben won the uncle lottery…. his uncle Payam, who by the accounts I’ve gotten is a standup guy, brought him in with a third co-founder for reply.com ….. then Ben was booted…. so this belligerent spree is funded by reply.com money…. I made the exact point you just made regarding investors in a previous piece…….. in short, he has damaged his reputation beyond repair. He will not be able to attract any investors of note now or at any time in the near future. This situation hasn’t even turned bad yet though…. they think it has, but it’s at about a 4 on a scale of 10. Wait until the Wall Street Journal and the like pickup on it…. wait until Vlad wins his case and counters…. this party is just getting started…. not to mention the fact that they have said they’re coming after BrokerScience…. the stupidity is so thick it will make you laugh, cry then puke.
June 14th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Trace, I agree. Left to his own devices with no tempering of his actions, Ben will make the situation worse. Sorry to hear you are in the thick of it. But at this point there will be so many dragons springing from the single head, they are likely to forget about Broker Science. So many bloggers to sue now, it would be a full time job just tracking us all down and a colossal waste of money to come after us all. But, I suppose that is what you get when you mess with minions. Minions. Sorry - I just had to type that again. I am taking great joy in being a minion right now. Perhaps I will someday graduate to being a carrion that is somehow feeding off the back of the hot mess that is/was ePerks.
June 18th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Trace;
This seems to be an excellent list of the links that can provide a new reader (if there are ant people out there who have not read some of this ) with an overview of the story. With your permission I would like to use a link to this as part of a post I have strated writing about my own mixed impressions of this situation.
Excellent recap - Thanks
June 18th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Bill: Not a problem at all…. you will find a larger list of every link I’ve come across here: http://brokerscience.com/re-web/eperks-com/beginners-guide-learning-about-vlad-vs-eperks-ben-behrouzi/
T
August 4th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I just wrote an article about some of the business and marketing aspects of this story. The social media issue highlighted some root problems that ePerks brought on themselves.
I am constantly amazed by the number of bad things that happen in the real estate industry.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Ben Behrouzi talks real hard for a 25yo who still lives with his mama! haha!