LUTHMANN NOTE: Ex-manager David Schwartz fights on in Florida courts, appealing a whistleblower case and facing a defamation suit from HR behemoth ADP as he campaigns to expose alleged corporate misconduct. This case is not small. It is not trivial. It is not going away. The federal court fight ended in ADP’s favor. But the Florida war remains alive. The whistleblower appeal sits before the Sixth District Court of Appeal. The defamation suit remains active in Lee County. That means the final chapter has not been written. Corporate America has vast resources. Individual whistleblowers rarely do. If Schwartz wins on appeal, this fight explodes back into the trial court. If he loses, ADP closes the book. Either way, 2026 may finally determine whether David Schwartz was a fraud… or a prophet. This piece is “Fort Myers Payroll War Continues,” first published in FLGulf.News.
By Richard Luthmann with Frankie Pressman
Blowing the Lid Off ADP’s “Dirty Little Secrets”
(FORT MYERS, FLORIDA) – This legal saga began when David M. Schwartz, a former senior sales manager at Automatic Data Processing (ADP), blew the whistle on what he called the payroll giant’s “dirty little secrets.” Hired in 2015 and promoted in 2017, Schwartz claims he witnessed ADP violating state unemployment insurance laws, committing tax fraud, falsifying Social Security numbers, and unethically hawking retirement plans it wasn’t licensed to sell.
After internal complaints fell on deaf ears, he reported the alleged fraud to the SEC and FINRA, setting the stage for a high-stakes confrontation. In mid-2018, Schwartz says ADP swiftly retaliated – locking him out of his company iPad and firing him a month later.
The ousted insider didn’t go quietly. Branding himself “the ADP whistleblower,” Schwartz went public with his accusations. He launched ADPFraud.com in 2019 to document “the federal crimes he reported” and rally other aggrieved employees and customers.
His first whistleblowing memo went viral with over 10,000 views, and thousands joined in sharing horror stories of ADP’s alleged wrongs…