Hi all: Thanks for the advice. A few minutes' poking around on the Minnesota Labor Statutes pages yields quite a bit. Starting from: http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/stats/184/ it's clear that the company fits the definition of "employment agency"; then according to http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/stats/184/37.html it's quite clear that they're supposed to have a written contract with me before they can do doodly-squat: Every employment agent shall contract, in writing, with every applicant for employment for services to be rendered to the applicant by the employment agent, which contract shall contain the date, the name and address of the employment agency, the name of the employment agent, the service charge to be made to the applicant, and the time and method of payments. Not that this fixes anything -- Foo is the one at risk of having to pay the finder's fee... good to know the laws for this make sense though. J