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SCOTTS VALLEY (CBS 5) ― Former employees of a Bay Area web conferencing company called Convenos say they worked for months without being paid and then were laid off in January. They told CBS 5 Investigates they never received their six months of back pay.

Those employees say two of the men who managed the company are well-known Arkansas political figures, one of them ex-Arkansas governor Jim Guy Tucker.

Records from the California Secretary of State's office show Tucker and Arkansas real estate developer Roger Steve Clary are listed as managers for Convenos.

Tucker resigned from the Arkansas governor's office in 1996 after he was swept up in the Whitewater scandal and found guilty of fraud and conspiracy.

But these days, his LinkedIn web profile shows his involvement in a number of business ventures including Convenos.

And former employee Don Bush said when he joined the company a couple of years ago, Convenos appeared solid and "well funded."

But in May 2008, Bush and another former employee, Lewis Tecson, say they were informed in emails by Convenos CEO Thomas Torf that the company couldn't make payroll. The former employees say the investors had to wire money from Arkansas to pay employees.

By Labor Day, emails show Torf emailed employees again to say "we can not make pay roll." He indicated that investor Clary was hoping for a "bridge loan" for a "big deal" and would let Torf know "when we all will get paid."

Tecson said he was falling behind on his house payments, but he kept working.

"The reason we stayed was because of trust. We trusted them," said Tecson.

And Bush said an email received in late September that year was encouraging. It spoke of the "really good news" expected from Jim Guy Tucker.

"We would have a conference call with the 'Boys in Arkansas' as we called them, sometimes Jim Guy Tucker, and sometimes Steve Clary, and they would tell us not to worry, hang in there, you're going to be rewarded, you will get rewarded for this. So we believe them," Bush told CBS 5 Investigates.

In an email from November 2008, Torf wrote employees that Clary had "all intentions to pay...what is owed." And a few days before Christmas that year, he wrote again saying that they were just "a couple of days away" from getting paid.

It didn't happen. On January 15th, 2009 the dozen or so employees still left at Convenos went to work but Tecson says they were told they were "on (their) own."

Since then, Bush and Tecson say they haven't seen that paycheck. CBS 5 Investigates attempted to contact both Tucker and Clary. Tucker, reached at his home in Arkansas, claimed he was just a "minor stockholder" in Convenos and told us to talk to Clary. He then hung up. Clary did not respond to repeated calls and messages left at his home and business.

Three former Convenos employees have filed claims with California's Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). Those claims total more than $125,000.

"The bottom line is if you can't pay your employees you can't keep them working," said Dean Fryer with DIR.

But finding out of state employers and getting them to cough up back pay can be difficult for the state. Fryer said the fact that one of the listed managers is an ex-governor could make that process easier.

"That is the type of information we do need; those are leads that we can follow up on, definitely," Fryer said in response to questions by CBS 5 Investigates.

Tecson said he's hoping for a resolution. He says he's owed roughly $50,000 and needs the money.

"We really need that paycheck for us to survive, I think," Tecson said.
CBS 5 Investigates also attempted to contact former Convenos CEO Thomas Torf but received no response to an email.

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