Need Help! Former Employer Who Underpaid Me, Misclassified Me As Contractor, And Is Currently Lying To Me To Sign A Separation Contract.

I currently have a former employer lying to me, trying to convince me to sign a separation agreement they forgot 6 months ago. They cited the reason as "we need it to file our business taxes" then changed the story and said their investors are asking for it.

Context:

July, 2024 a start up owner reached out offering me a position in their company. I asked if I could keep my job to which they responded "it's kind of like putting our company second".

I complied, and agreed to quit my job. I even asked if I could have 3 months to transition, and they said no; so I agreed to transition by August.

Immediately after agreeing to do so; they started me off as a part time contractor.

After cutting my hours at my then current job, and proving my worth/ability to work they sent me a contract for a full-time position, at $55k a year with stock benefits, which I received through an app called "Carta".

Problems:

• Immediately after signing this contract, red flags emerged: I was told their payment system isn't configured and to please send invoices for my hours. So I calculated 40 hours a week, with $26.44 to reflect the $55k/year
• Not even 1 week after signing the full-time contract, the owner asked to cut my hours in half to 20. This was literally a day after I quit my job...
• I vehemently opposed that idea, and they verbally agreed to pay me 30 hours a week, never sent a contract or agreement to reflect these changes
• In the end; not even a full 3 months after starting with this company I was laid off with "lack of funds" as the reasoning, and was also criticized for my performance. Even though I created a brand new feature for their software that helped secure a $7000 contract for a customer to use said tool.

Current Situation:

• The employer sent me a 1099 instead of a W2 and also sent me a separation agreement (which ironically enough has me labeled as "employee")
• They lied; they told me it was for their business taxes which was not true
• I called them out on this, and they are lying further saying that I was a part time contractor, I denied the full time offer, and I never signed a full-time contract and they are denying the existence of said contract.

Evidence:

• I have emails documented explaining my plans to quit my job, and agreeing to do so by August
• My 1099 reflects full time payment, I only worked there for 9 weeks and made over $7k part time would have been less
• I have emails reflecting the employer lying about the reason for the separation agreement

Really just looking for someone's take on this, I've never been in a position to sue someone and have no idea how to go about it, and the technicalities of what went on here; to my understanding it's employee misclassification for sure, and possibly false inducement of employment.

*Edit: a big problem I have is the full-time contract I signed with them was done through their company email, I do not have access to it, and when I asked they refused it existed and will not send it to me; which furthers the suspicion.