Last year, Jesse Garza headhunted me to do some writing work for Naughty America that was part of an SEO strategy. Initially, the plan was for me to be contracted directly with Naughty America - all of the work I was doing was directly for them. Sadly, their legal department was taking so long getting a contract together and well, Jesse and I just wanted to get on and do some goddamn work.
I'd heard through other contacts that Naughty America had been sketchy with payouts and to be honest, I put more trust into Jesse being a middleman than I did being contracted directly with Naughty anyway. I had someone vouch for him and since I'm 10,000 miles away, a contract isn't much good anyway - what am I going to do, take them to small claims court?
Sadly, Jesse died a few months ago and I was left being owed a few thousand bucks. I reached out to a contact at Naughty America (Justin) and after months of very little contact or information, effectively got told to pound sand.
Naughty has no legal obligation to pay me, but like I said: even if they did, what am I going to do? I'm in Australia, they're in the US - it'd be a dead end regardless.
Naughty does have a moral obligation to pay me. The work I did was only ever for them and as a part of Jesse's SEO strategy. Him being a middleman financially was just for convenience, since the people who wanted to move the project along and the people who do all of the paperwork were working in vastly different universes.
Thread is just a warning to anyone else: if you do things informally and trust the goodwill of Naughty America to settle their debts, you run the risk of being burned. Also, RIP Jesse - you were good to work with and I hope you're in a better place.
Jesse convos
Justin convos