JOB-FINDING FIRM SEARCHED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993                   TAG: 9303210130
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Short
JOB-FINDING FIRM SEARCHED
The FBI has searched the office of a company that promises to find people jobs overseas, but the business has not been charged with any crimes.
The search was conducted Wednesday at Barclay International Ltd.
According to a search warrant filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk, the investigation is for possible violations of mail fraud and wire fraud laws.
Barclay, also known as Coup Fourre, advertises widely to help people find overseas jobs. "Up to $70,000 annually. Tax-free salaries," one ad claimed. The company requires a $750 advance fee from clients.
Daya Atri, a 55-year-old unemployed import-export manager from Lowell, Mass., saw a Barclay ad in a Boston newspaper almost two years ago and decided with his son Ken to pay the advance fee.
"Once they got their money, we got nothing out of them," Ken Atri said.
The Virginia Beach Consumer Affairs Division has received 107 complaints against Barclay since 1987, and 40 still have not been resolved, said Cathy Parks, acting director of the division.
The company has run such ads in the classifieds of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
Jon Marshe, the president of the company, declined to comment on the FBI action. But Parks said Marshe has been cooperating with her office.
The company routinely tells clients that its success rate is between 60 percent and 80 percent, "when in fact only a handful, i.e. less than 5 percent" have found jobs, the warrant said.
The company also allegedly told clients that more than 3,000 corporations use it for hiring "when this is not in fact the case," the warrant said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB