'I put my heart into the company:' Sapulpa man afraid to lose everything after not getting paid

Employees at Paragon in Sapulpa say they haven't been paid in weeks. The steel pipe manufacturer has been in the community for more than 40 years, and the company and CEO are facing several lawsuits.

Don Cato works at the Sapulpa pipe manufacturer. He survived the layoffs in December but says he hasn't been paid since January 1st.

Now, Cato is worried he's going to lose his home, truck and everything he's worked for. He says the company cut his pay a few months ago and now he hasn't received a paycheck at all.

Emails from the company to salaried employees say checks are unavailable with no other details included. 

Paragon Industries and its owner, Derek Wachob have been bombarded with lawsuits since last year.

Wachob and the business face more than $200 million in lawsuits with more expected.

The suits claim Wachob took investor money to fund his lavish lifestyle and owes millions in unpaid invoices to companies Paragon and Wachob have done business with.

Paragon laid-off some employees just days before Christmas but they were told in a letter that the layoffs were due to a downturn in the market. Since then, Wachob has been selling luxury cars and other personal assets. 

Timeline: 

September 10th: TLLP, LLC filed a $7.6 million lawsuit against Paragon and Global Source Recycling. 

It says they loaned Global Source recycling money and the collateral was sitting on land in Muskogee, owned by Paragon and as part of the loan, the Recycling company promised to make payments.

The suit says that according to the agreement if Global Source Recycling defaulted on the loan, the collateral would immediately be shipped to them.

The lawsuit says the company defaulted on the loan and the collateral was never delivered.

September 25th: Amarillo National Bank files a $10 million lawsuit against Paragon and Wachob for non-payment of a loan.

September 27th: AM/NS Calvert sues Paragon for $31.5 million plus interest.

The steel company says between January of 2023 and May of 2024, Paragon bought products from Calvert worth more than $15 million dollars and hasn’t paid for them.

It also says that in May of 2023, Calvert and Paragon entered a consignment agreement that resulted in more than $16 million in losses to the Calvert company because of non-payment by Paragon.

October 3rd: Nucor Steel out of Arkansas sues Paragon for $32 million plus another $8 million in interest, that’s still accumulating. Nucor says Paragon bought large amounts of sheet steel from them and never paid for it. Documents say Paragon placed 47 orders between April and August of 2022.

October 22nd: A WARN Letter was sent to Paragon employees saying layoffs could happen between December 21st and January 4th. The letters say the company has seen a business slowdown and it's had to reduce its operations, and the layoffs would be permanent. The letter goes on to say they are trying to find ways to limit the number of layoffs as the company is working hard to obtain contracts.

October 24th: Former Friends of Wachob Skip and Chad Braver sue Wachob for $30 million for what the suit calls a “fraudulent investment scheme.”

It says Wachob told the Bravers he would buy steel products at low prices and sell them at higher prices, and he would split the profits. The Bravers say Wachob promised to match their investments dollar for dollar. They say they gave him money 24 different times to purchase 82,123 tons of industrial rolled steel valued at $55 million between November of 2023 and August of 2024. It says he never told them Paragon was heavily in debt and not able to pay its bills of around $45 million at the time and had they known that they would never have invested. It says they never got any of their money back and never received any profits from the deals. They accuse Wachob of using all that money to fund his lavish lifestyle.

November 1st: A Group of former friends and investors file a lawsuit in Tulsa County against Paragon Industries and Wachob for owing them $11 million for an investment property in Missouri.

November 6th: CTAP, a Colorado Piping company, and Sooner Pipe sue Paragon, accusing the company of holding $67 million worth of steel coils and piping belonging to them. It says $12 million in steel coils can't be accounted for and they believe it's being shipped by the truckloads to unknown destinations.

November 18th: A lawsuit filed by Interstate Electric says Paragon owes them more than $106,000 for doing routine work on pumps, meters, and generators.

December 2nd: Texas Judge issues a final judgment ordering Paragon to pay Amarillo Bank 10 million dollars plus 18% interest.

December 9th: Luxury Cars spotted being loaded onto trailers near Paragon.

December 16th: Edgen Murray files a lawsuit in Federal Court in Texas for more than 14 million dollars for a fraudulent investment.

December 23rd: Some employees are laid-off just days before Christmas.

January 2nd, 2025: A group of former friends and Investors (Schouten, Mead & Nossman) re-file suit against Wachob & companies in Tulsa county. 

January 15th: Some salaried employees say they did not receive checks for January. 

January 23rd: Company email goes out saying that salary checks are not available.

January 24th: Another company email saying salary checks are not available.

January 29th: Employees tell News On 6 they have still not been paid.