This company operates by defrauding freelancers. They will only pay about half of the agreed upon rate (often as a deposit) then simply ignore the remaining amount after the work has been completed.
Their first tactic is to pretend they have suffered a natural disaster or been the victims of a cyber crime. Then they attempt to ignore collections and communications attempts. If that fails, they begin to bully and threaten frivolous legal action or demand that an NDA be signed in order to release payment. The contract they want signed effectively removes all rights from the freelancer, relieves Somar of any duty to pay, and requires the freelancer to remove any negative public reviews. It is, of course, a contract no court would ever uphold, but I imagine their hope is to intimidate a freelancer from wanting to pursue further action.
They will then create fake accounts to post positive reviews as a means of mitigating negative reviews. Just take a look at their online reviews: positive reviews come in waves after a negative one and are from accounts that have all reviewed the same businesses.
Somar and its associates have also been successfully sued for non-payment in Los Angeles by another production company, whom they have still not paid in full.
Somar Film & Productions Reviews
This company operates by defrauding freelancers. They will only pay about half of the agreed upon rate (often as a deposit) then simply ignore the remaining amount after the work has been completed.
Their first tactic is to pretend they have suffered a natural disaster or been the victims of a cyber crime. Then they attempt to ignore collections and communications attempts. If that fails, they begin to bully and threaten frivolous legal action or demand that an NDA be signed in order to release payment. The contract they want signed effectively removes all rights from the freelancer, relieves Somar of any duty to pay, and requires the freelancer to remove any negative public reviews. It is, of course, a contract no court would ever uphold, but I imagine their hope is to intimidate a freelancer from wanting to pursue further action.
They will then create fake accounts to post positive reviews as a means of mitigating negative reviews. Just take a look at their online reviews: positive reviews come in waves after a negative one and are from accounts that have all reviewed the same businesses.
Somar and its associates have also been successfully sued for non-payment in Los Angeles by another production company, whom they have still not paid in full.
https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la1-spare-parts-media-inc-vs-somar-productions-1401734
Somar Film and Productions lists offices across the United States, but most are P.O. Boxes.