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Separate Fact Checks Have Found Moreno’s Excuses “False”

Columbus, OH – Bernie Moreno has destroyed evidence to get out of paying his employees the overtime they earned, and a series of fact checks have confirmed his excuses are “false.” Here are five fast facts about the lawsuits Moreno faced and how he has lied about them:  

1. After being sued by his employees for withholding wages, Moreno destroyed key evidence he was legally required to keep.

2. Moreno was sanctioned by a judge for destroying key evidence to avoid paying his employees the overtime they had earned.

3. Moreno was found liable by a jury for wage theft and was forced to pay over $400,000 in damages – only then did he settle over a dozen wage theft lawsuits before launching his Senate bid.
   
   
4. Moreno has blamed “liberal,” “activist,” “lunatic” judges for losing the jury trial in the case – which reports note “isn’t true.” In fact, the judge in Moreno’s case was a “Republican-appointed jurist who also served as chief of the anti-terrorism and national security unit of the Boston US Attorney’s office under President George W. Bush.”
   
   
5. Moreno also made “false claims” that a 2019 Massachusetts court decision “retroactively” required him to pay his employees overtime. A WKYC fact check showed Moreno was “required to pay [his employees] for overtime worked” beginning in 2015 and that “nothing new and unexpected was retroactively required of employers” after the decision.

Moreno’s multiple lies and refusal to answer legitimate questions about how far he went to avoid paying his employees makes it clear: Moreno doesn’t think the rules apply to him and Ohioans can’t trust him to look out for anyone but himself. 

SEE ALSO: FACT CHECK: Bernie Moreno’s Defense For Committing Wage Theft Ruled “FALSE”; MUST WATCH CLIP: Bernie Moreno’s Defense For Committing Wage Theft Ruled “FALSE”; WATCH: Bernie Moreno Faces Scrutiny For Destroying Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; New Report Finds Bernie Moreno’s Defense For Destroying Evidence Isn’t True; Bernie Moreno Facing Further Attacks After Reports Show He Shredded Documents To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; Bernie Moreno Dogged By Reports That He Shredded Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; FACT CHECK: Bernie Moreno Destroyed Evidence He Had “Obligation” To Keep To Get Out Of Paying Employees; GOP Debate Clouded By Reports Moreno Destroyed Evidence: Here Are The Facts; Bernie Moreno Destroyed Key Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Wages They’d Earned

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WKYC: “We can verify that Moreno’s claims are false”

Columbus, OH – A new WKYC “Verify” report found that Bernie Moreno’s defense for refusing to pay his employees the overtime wages they had earned is “false” and that Moreno was “required to pay for overtime worked” beginning in 2015. 

When reports found Moreno destroyed evidence after he was sued for withholding his employees’ wages, Moreno falsely claimed a 2019 Massachusetts court decision “retroactively” required him to pay his employees overtime. Moreno has also blamed “liberal,” “activist,” “lunatic” judges for losing the jury trial in the case – which separate reports found “isn’t true.” 

“Once again, Bernie Moreno has been caught lying through his teeth about destroying evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of paying his employees the wages they earned,” said ODP spokesperson Katie Smith. “Moreno has made it clear that Ohioans can’t trust him and that he will only look out for himself.”

Read more:

WKYC: No, Bernie Moreno’s claims that Massachusetts courts overturned federal law in wage theft lawsuits and made rulings retroactive are not true: VERIFY

By Stephanie Haney

February 12, 2024 

• Republican candidate for an Ohio US Senate seat Bernie Moreno recently dismissed the outcome of a Massachusetts lawsuit that he lost related to overtime wage theft, by making false claims about the result.

• Moreno was sued in 2017 for failing to pay overtime wages to two car salespeople. This lawsuit was based on the 2015 Massachusetts state regulation 454 CMR 27.03(3).

• What that means is that the Massachusetts Department of Labor started requiring employers to pay workers separately for overtime hours, even if those employees earn commission. 

• While the 2017 lawsuit against Moreno was proceeding, a separate lawsuit was decided in 2019 by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Moreno was not a part of this lawsuit, but before the lawsuit against him was decided, that court confirmed that employers must pay workers separately for overtime, even if those employees earn commission on sales, based on the 2015 state regulation.

• Based on all of this, we can verify that Moreno’s claims about the outcome of the lawsuit against him are false.

• …nothing new and unexpected was retroactively required of employers, in either court’s verdict. Once the 2015 state regulation went into effect, employers were required to pay for overtime worked, even for workers who earn commission on sales.

• To add additional context here, Moreno was sanctioned by the court in the lawsuit against him for destroying overtime records that he was ordered to keep while the case moved forward.

• Those records were destroyed in 2020, after the Massachusetts Supreme Court affirmed that workers who earn commission must be paid separately for overtime.

• As punishment for destroying those records, the judge instructed the jury members that they could assume that the destroyed evidence would have hurt Moreno’s defense.

• Moreno lost that lawsuit, and he was ultimately ordered to pay $416,160  to his former employees, after having been found liable for stolen overtime wages. He went on to settle more than a dozen similar lawsuits, before announcing his candidacy for Ohio’s US senate seat in 2023.

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WKYC: “We can verify that Moreno’s claims are false”

Columbus, OH – A new WKYC “Verify” report today found that Bernie Moreno’s defense for refusing to pay his employees the overtime wages they had earned are “false” and that Moreno was “required to pay for overtime worked” beginning in 2015. 

After reporting found Moreno destroyed evidence while facing lawsuits for withholding his employees’ wages, Moreno falsely claimed a 2019 Massachusetts court decision “retroactively” required him to pay his employees overtime. Moreno has also blamed “liberal,” “activist,” “lunatic” judges for losing the jury trial in the case which separate reports found “isn’t true.” 

WATCH FROM WKYC: “We can verify that Moreno’s claims are false”

Stephanie Haney, WKYC: “… Nothing new and unexpected was retroactively required of employers in either court’s verdict. Once the 2015 regulation went into effect, employers were required to pay for overtime worked… Moreno was ultimately ordered to pay more than $400,000 to his former employees after having been found liable for stolen overtime wages, and went on to settle more than a dozen similar lawsuits before announcing his candidacy for Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat.”

SEE ALSO: WATCH: Bernie Moreno Faces Scrutiny For Destroying Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; New Report Finds Bernie Moreno’s Defense For Destroying Evidence Isn’t True; Bernie Moreno Facing Further Attacks After Reports Show He Shredded Documents To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; Bernie Moreno Dogged By Reports That He Shredded Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; FACT CHECK: Bernie Moreno Destroyed Evidence He Had “Obligation” To Keep To Get Out Of Paying Employees; GOP Debate Clouded By Reports Moreno Destroyed Evidence: Here Are The Facts; Bernie Moreno Destroyed Key Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Wages They’d Earned

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Moreno Opposed “Most Conservative Border Bill In Decades,” Backed By Border Patrol Agents

Columbus, OH – After Bernie Moreno opposed “the most conservative border bill in decades” – despite the bill being backed by border patrol agents – Ohioans are seeing that Moreno is “not a serious person” who would rather talk tough than do what is right for Ohioans. 

What Ohioans are reading about Moreno’s opposition to “the most conservative border bill in decades” backed by border patrol agents:

Politico: “…Republican Senate candidates, from Kari Lake in Arizona to Bernie Moreno in Ohio, came out against it. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), who chairs the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, said ‘This will hurt them on election night.’”

WCMH: “Moreno drew criticism from the Ohio Democratic Party on border security. First, an ad targeted Moreno for not supporting the bipartisan border security bill that was blocked by Senate Republicans. Then, a mobile billboard in Dayton used similar language.”

Cleveland.com: “The Ohio Democratic Party also launched a web ad this week calling attention to Moreno’s opposition to the recent Senate bipartisan border security legislation…”

Punchbowl News: “The Ohio Democratic Party is running a new digital ad hitting GOP Senate frontrunner Bernie Moreno for his opposition to the now-dead bipartisan border bill. Moreno, like many Republicans nationwide, came out against the bill negotiated by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).”

Ohio Capital Journal: “The U.S. Senate is bringing forward this week the biggest bipartisan immigration deal and border crackdown this country has seen since Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill, and Bernie Moreno…called it an ‘abomination’ before the details of the deal were even released. This is not a serious person.”

HuffPost: “Bernie Moreno, a businessman and Trump-backed candidate for Senate in Ohio, told voters in Vermillion on Jan. 13 that the bill was an ‘abomination.’”

SEE ALSO: Mobile Billboard Highlights Moreno’s Opposition to Border Security Bill, New Digital Ad Highlights Moreno’s Opposition to Border Security Bill; Reminder: As Senate Votes On Border Bill Today, Moreno Is AGAINST Securing The Border; National Border Patrol Council Leader Praises Border Bill, But Moreno Is AGAINST It; Bernie Moreno is AGAINST Strengthening the Border, Don’t Let Him Tell You Otherwise

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Columbus, OH – Today, the Ohio Democratic Party released the following statement in response to the indictments announced related to the $60 million bribery scandal. 

“For four years, Ohioans have waited for state officials to hold anyone accountable in the largest public corruption scandal in state history. Today’s announcement is long overdue. But just because Dave Yost wants to act tough now, make no mistake: he and his fellow statewide Republicans with higher political ambitions have deep ties to this bribery scheme. And Ohioans still deserve answers from Dave Yost, Jon Husted and many other Ohio Republicans on their involvement in this historic scandal,” said Matt Keyes, Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson.

At the federal trial on the bribery scandal, Matt Borges – who was convicted in the scandal – was quoted as saying that Yost believed the bailout was a bad law but wanted to help FirstEnergy. Borges added about Yost: “If there’s any way the law will allow him to reject the language, he will do it.”

Borges, sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in the scandal, served as a campaign manager for Yost, and Yost took $10k from Borges before he eventually caved to public pressure to give it back. Yost once said, “It would be foolish for anyone to accept campaign contributions from these defendants.” Yost also received a subpoena to testify in the trial.

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