“I did contract graphic design and web design work for David Waathiq in 2001 and 2002. He always paid his invoices very late and several of his checks bounced. He stopped paying me altogether early in 2002 although he kept contracting me to do more work. He kept promising to pay with one excuse after another but did not. I stupidly kept working for him because, although he had paid late in the past he had eventually always paid but no longer. He found less experienced people to do the work who charged less. He told me he had to pay them to make money before he could pay me even though he owed me money for months. I've since heard from one of those people that he owes them money also.

I finally took him to small claims court when he owed me over $5000. As $5000 is the limit for small claims court I had to sue for that amount. Waathiq did not show up in court and I won the case. I've since talked to 2 other designers that he worked with who had similar experiences. They also won lawsuits in small claims court against him but had no way to collect.

Waathiq and his wife have filed for bankruptcy many times and I am listed as a creditor on the most recent filing, United States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California, Case No. 02-3-2617 SFC13. He owes so much money to other people including the IRS that I'll probably never see a dime.

Waathiq told me that his corporation M.D. Waathiq & Assoc., Inc. owed me the money not him. When I did a search with the State of California I was told there was no such corporation, nor had there ever been. I checked with a few other western states but could not find it listed anywhere.

I also did $12,000 work on research, development and web design of a new business we were originally starting together but he then claimed it as his. Waathiq never followed through on his part and his clients backed out and he never compensated me for one penny. He would only put payment terms in writing in email and would change his mind almost daily.

My professional reputation was adversely effected by being associated with Waathiq as he did not keep his commitments to his clients and often would not let me do the work requested by them or not let me do it in time to meet their deadlines. Once he began to use less experienced people to work on sites I had created, the sites began to look inconsistent and thrown together with a mixture of styles. The new designers were not experienced enough to match the look and feel.

My advice is that if you want to work for Waathiq get paid in full in advance with a cashier's check or cash. Having a contract alone will not help you since even if you sue and win you will be at the end of a long list of creditors waiting to be paid.”