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Pay By Touch, the company whose biometric technology lets you ... well, yes, that ... may finally pay its employees who have worked pro bono for the past six weeks. Something to do with founder and convicted felon John Rogers skipping town. According to a forwarded memo (posted after the jump), court appointed custodian Tom Lumsden has cashed in some favors to raise $9 million to put toward one of the three missed payroll periods and cover employee benefits and expenses. An added bonus: the funds are enough, Lumsden writes, to "enable me to commit that you will be paid going forward for this month and beyond." So why aren't employees receiving all that they're owed? Good question. At least those foolish enough to stick around can have a happy Turkey Day knowing that, with court approval, they'll receive a paycheck this Wednesday. Two things Lumsden didn't say: Who gave the company that $9 million, and what strings were attached to the money.

November 19, 2007

Dear Pay By Touch Employees,

I wrote to you last Friday indicating that we would be working over the weekend to secure funding to cover payroll, benefits and other immediate needs. I am pleased to report, with the help of a number of your colleagues who labored with me over the weekend, we were able to submit papers today for court approval that will provide us $9 million in funding. This is good news, as it provides me the opportunity to make some steps towards catching up on the monies owed to each of you. I expect the court to approve this financing and enable me to fulfill one of the missed payrolls to those employees that have suffered for the past 6 weeks. With the court approval, we are making arrangements to make payment of the payroll due to you for October 15 by Wednesday this week. I also will have funds to enable me to commit that you will be paid going forward for this month and beyond.

I am also pleased to report with this funding, we will provide for coverage for all of your benefits and will process the payments to reimburse employee expense reports. I will also set aside funds for benefit coverage for December.

Unfortunately, I was not able to obtain as much as funding as necessary to catch up on all of amounts due many of you. That is my next task, along with reviewing the operations of each segment of the business to gain more focus on how we spend our money and run our business. To assist me in this endeavor, I am pleased to report that Eula Adams has agreed to rejoin Pay By Touch as our Chief Operating Officer. Eula and I spent the day together in San Francisco working on putting these reorganization plans in place for the company. I expect to be able to announce a new focus for the company and its employees in the next few days.

As I spend more time understanding your business, and meeting more of the people involved in driving this new shopper focused experience, I am impressed by the dedication and willingness of many of you to offer me your ideas and contributions to help. I welcome your ideas and enthusiasm. We are open to change and look for our best resource, our people, to generate that innovation for us.

Please do not hesitate to communicate those ideas to Eula or myself. I will continue to keep you updated of the next steps in our recovery.

Once again, thank you again for your loyalty and perseverance,

Tom Lumsden

Custodian
Solidus Networks, Inc. dba Pay By Touch