Suppose I am fooled to work in a start-up or a company that has been a very small over a long time, let say 10 years. I work them 3 months and I really enjoy the work -- I learn a lot of new skills such as Haskell, MapReduce, CouchDB and many other little things. Now the firm did not pay any salary: A) I may be unskilled, B) I did not meet some deadline (I don't know because I am not allowed to speak to the boss but I know that I am not getting any payment) or C) I was fooled.

Some detail about C

I heard that the firm have had similar cases from my friend, "The guy X was there and he said he does not trust the firm at all so he went to other firm". I don't know what the term "trust" mean here, anyway the firm consists of ignorant drop-outs that hires academic people, a bit irony. They hire people from student-organizations and let them work and promise ok -compensation but -- when you start working the co-employer starts all kind of instructions "Do not work so hard, do not work so long, do not work so much" -- it is like he is making sure you do not feel sad when he does not pay any salary (co-employer is an owner in the firm).

Anyway, I learnt a ton in the company but it was very inefficient working. I worked only alone, not really working in a "company". Now should by resume contain references to the firm and the guy who did not pay me anything? Or should my resume read that I worked in XYZ -technologies -- but 1 year's NDA -- what can write here?

Now I fear that if I put the firm to my resume: they will lie about my input to my next employer. I feel they are very dishonest. On the other hand, I want to make it sure that I have worked over the time. So:

Should my CV contain the not-so-good or even awful employers that may be fooling people to work there?

I am pretty sure everyone knows the firm and its habbits, circles are small but people are afraid to speak.