In a reversal of the outsourcing trend, an Indian-based tech support company looked to the U.S. to create up to 300 jobs in partnership with a call center operator in Maine. The July announcement was big enough news that Gov. Paul LePage attended the event in Lewiston.

But it didn’t take long for the deal to unravel.

Argo Marketing terminated the contract with iYogi in October and filed a lawsuit for nonpayment this month. Only 30 people were hired in Lewiston.

Argo CEO Jason Levesque said Thursday he felt “deceived” by iYogi.

“In business sometimes it’s better to stop doing a certain contract relatively quickly before you keep going down a road that could lead to disaster,” he said.

The news in Maine coincides with a lawsuit filed in Washington state that accuses iYogi of scamming customers into buying software and services they don’t need. The attorney general said Wednesday that hundreds if not thousands of people had fallen for the scams.

Vishal Dhar, iYogi’s president and co-founder, said Thursday that accusations that the company scammed consumers were “false and baseless.”

He described the company’s Maine venture as important for delivering “baseline metrics” and that the company aims to relaunch U.S. operations in the new year. “We chose Maine for its talent, and it still remains our first choice,” he said in a statement.

The company bills itself as the world’s largest independent technical support provider. With 5,000 workers in India, iYogi provides technical support via telephone, computer chats and email – plus onsite help through 1,500 contract workers – for consumers who sign contracts with the company, the company said.

The lawsuit in Washington alleged deceptive business practices under the state Consumer Protection Act, as well as violations of the state Computer Spyware Statute.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said iYogi representatives routinely take remote control of the computers of people who seek help, making ominous warnings flash on the screen and then encouraging them to pay for services they don’t need.

In Maine, the governor was among dignitaries on hand when iYogi executives traveled to Lewiston to announce the partnership with Argo Marketing, an established call center operator that employs 500 people.

The Lewiston deal marked iYogi’s first foray into U.S. call center operations.

The Maine workers weren’t involved in any of the activities alleged by the lawsuit in Washington state, Levesque said. In Lewiston, the workers took incoming calls from consumers interested in iYogi’s services and routed those calls to India, he said.

Argo Marketing hired 30 workers before Levesque ended the contract. He said the company was paid about half of what it was owed. A lawsuit in New York aims to collect the remainder, about $72,000.

He said he decided to terminate the agreement “because of a myriad of factors.” He said the company is not interested in further partnerships with iYogi.

“We believe we made the right decision in exiting the contract instead of plowing along and hiring lots of individuals for a contract that might not have had the longevity that we hoped for and that we were led to believe,” he said.