Tag Archives: 2013

$46 Million Stolen: 2013’s Top Ten Workers’ Compensation Fraud Cases

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Professor Leonard T. Jernigan Jr. has compiled a list of 2013’s Top 10 Workers’ Compensation Fraud Cases

Today’s post comes from guest author Leonard Jernigan from The Jernigan Law Firm in North Carolina. It is unfortunate that this article is necessary, but I appreciate the important work Mr. Jernigan does to compile these fraud cases each year. Because it makes for very interesting reading and reminds folks that fraud occurs on both sides of the workers’ compensation debate.

Employee fraud seems to get headlines, but employer fraud occurs on a much larger economic scale. As Mr. Jernigan points out, it’s the workers and taxpayers who are on the hook with employer fraud when an employee gets hurt and doesn’t have the coverage that they expected. But it is also worth noting that this year (for the first time in the five years Mr. Jernigan has compiled this list), an employee is in the top 10. As noted below, “the record is now 49-1 (employer fraud v. employee fraud) over the past five years.” I find this important food for thought as we begin a new year.

Employer Fraud Cases (9):$44,962,492.00
Employee Fraud Cases (1): $1,500,000.00
Total: $46,462,492.00

Every year we hear about fraud in Workers’ Compensation cases and the public believes the fraud is employee driven. However, in 2009 I began tracking the Top Ten Fraud Cases and 100% of the Top Ten between 2009-2012 involved employers or shady characters posing as legitimate businesses. The amount of employer fraud is staggering. In 2013 one employee fraud case did crack the Top Ten, so the record is now 49-1 (employer fraud v. employee fraud) over the past five years.

  1. Florida: Owners of Diaz Supermarkets in Miami-Dade are Accused of $35 Million Fraud (4/16/13)

    John Diaz and his wife Mercedes Avila-Diaz owned and operated four supermarkets in the Miami-Dade area. They have been arrested and accused of workers’ compensation fraud and other fraudulent transactions totaling $35 million. One business they operated had no coverage for employees for ten years. They allegedly engaged in a scam to help subcontractors obtain false certificates of insurance that allowed the subs to work for general contractors who required the certificates.

  2. California: Hanford Farm Labor Contractor Convicted of Fraud in the Amount of $4,195,900 (12/6/2013)

    Richard Escamilla, Jr. (47), owner of ROC Harvesting, misrepresented information to workers’ compensation insurance carriers by using new business names to obtain insurance and avoid providing a claim history. Escamilla pleaded guilty on October 29th and was sentenced to pay restitution of $4.1 million and serve six years in prison.

  3. Michigan: Insurance Executive Embezzled $2.6 Million from Workers’ Comp TPA (06/06/2013)

    Jerry Stage

    Jerry Stage (67), the former CEO of a non-profit workers’ compensation insurance company, and George Bauer (55), the bookkeeper, both pleaded guilty to embezzling from the Compensation Advisory Organization of Michigan (CAOM) for more than a decade. Mr. Stage embezzled $2.6 million from the company and conspired with Mr. Bauer to cover up the embezzlement.

  4. California: Employee Wasn’t Wheelchair Bound After All – Fraudulently Took $1.5 Million in Benefits (8/9/13)

    Yolandi Kohrumel

    Yolandi Kohrumel, 35, claimed for nine years that she was wheelchair bound after complications from toe surgery, but after she had collected $1.5 million in benefits it was revealed her claim was false. Her father, a South African native, was also engaged in the scam. Both pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, grand theft and perjury. Ms Kohrumel was sentenced to one year in jail, plus restitution.

  5. California: Father and Son Landscapers Accused of $1.45 Million in Insurance Fraud (5/7/13)

    Sunshine Landscaping

    Jesse Garcia Contreras (57) and Carlos Contreras (33), who operate a Thousand Palms landscaping business, are accused of committing $1.45 million in insurance fraud. They are accused of defrauding the California State Compensation Insurance Fund by misclassifying employees from January 2008 to March 2012. Mr. Jesse Contreras is the president and CEO of Sunshine Landscaping and his son is Director of Accounting. If convicted, they each face up to 19 years and 8 months in prison.

  6. Florida: Workers’ Compensation Check Cashing Operation Charged with $1 Million in Fraud (2/27/13)

    As a result of its investigation of I&T Financial Services, LLC, a company that was allegedly set up to execute a large scale check cashing scheme for the purpose of evading the cost of workers’ compensation coverage. Domenick Pucillo, the ringleader of the fraud scheme, was arrested and charged with filing a false and fraudulent document, forgery, uttering a forged instrument, and operating an unlicensed money service business. If convicted on all charges, he faces up to 45 years in prison. $1 million was seized during this investigation.

  7. California & North Carolina: Cleaning Company Owner Convicted of Underreporting Payroll and Ordered to Pay $898,000 (8/3/2013)

    As noted in this link, after this story was published, the defendant withdrew his guilty plea and submitted a not guilty plea. The charges were dismissed. An attorney for the defendant told the Winston-Salem Journal that this was not fraud, but rather a mistake cause when an outside accountant filed the wrong payroll paperwork.

  8. West Virginia: Coal Company Contractor in Mingo County Caught in $405,000 Scam to Avoid Workers’ Comp Premiums (11/6/13)

    Jerame Russell (50), an executive with Aracoma Contracting, LLC, a company that provided labor to coal companies on a contract basis, entered a guilty plea to a scam that involved funneling over $2 million through a local bank to pay employees in cash, thus avoiding payroll taxes and $405,000 in workers’ compensation premiums. Aracoma also bribed an insurance auditor to cover up its true payroll.

  9. Ohio: Roofing Business Owners Guilty of $283,592 in Workers’ Comp Fraud (7/30/2013)

    Frederick Diebert

    The owners of Triple Star Roofing were found guilty of fraud on July 15 for failing to report payroll to the Ohio Bureau or Workers’ Compensation(BWC). The company failed to report to the BWC from 2004 to 2008, resulting in under-reported premiums of $283,592.

  10. Florida: Owner of Staffing Company arrested for $130,000 in Workers’ Comp Fraud

    Preferred Staffing of America, Inc.

    The owner of Preferred Staffing of America, Inc., a temporary staffing agency in Tampa, has been arrested for allegedly running an organized workers’ compensation fraud scheme. Preferred Staffing’s owner misled clients into believing that his company was a licensed professional employer organization (PEO) and could provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage. Employers were reportedly charged more than $130,000 for workers’ compensation insurance and other services that were never provided.

For more information, contact: Leonard T. Jernigan, Jr. Adjunct Professor of Workers’ Compensation N.C. Central School of Law The Jernigan Law Firm 2626 Glenwood Avenue, Suite 330 Raleigh, North Carolina 27608 (919) 833-0299 ltj@jernlaw.com www.jernlaw.com @jernlaw

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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Roger Moore Volunteers as NSBA Workers’ Comp Section Vice Chairman

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Attorney Roger Moore

Firm partner Roger Moore is serving as the Vice Chairman for the Nebraska State Bar Association (NSBA) Workers’ Compensation Section for 2013.

“My responsibilities are to assist the chair in scheduling and recruiting speakers for the annual WC seminar, and this year in helping to facilitate the development of a workers’ compensation manual, which hasn’t been done in about 20 years,” he said. “Typically, we have over 100 attendees to the annual seminar.”

Moore is in his third year of serving a four-year rotation of leadership positions within the Section, which started when he was nominated for and elected to the treasurer position two years ago. He then became secretary of the group last year. If he progresses as expected, Moore will be the third member of the firm to serve as chairman of the NSBA Workers’ Compensation Section. Partner Todd Bennett and I are past chairmen. Moore has participated as a member of the WC Section for the last 13 years, he said. And he is admitted to practice in both Nebraska and Iowa.

“I chose to be a candidate in an effort to help educate my peers about workers’ compensation issues in general, which hopefully will lead to higher integrity, better education about important issues in this area, and in an effort to represent my clients by arguing for plaintiff-friendly positions. As I am the only purely plaintiff’s attorney executive, this is challenging at times. This section has done a great job in educating its members and fostering cooperation over the years, something I hope to continue in the last two years of my executive position.”

There are currently 9,300 attorneys and judges in the NSBA, according to its website. And there are more than 50 sections in the NSBA. Each section is made up of a group of attorneys who share similar interests and voluntarily join that section. Attorneys can belong to more than one section.

Currently, 207 members comprise the Workers’ Compensation Section. The Section’s goals, according to Moore, are similar to the NSBA’s mission, which can be found here. Some of the priorities that Moore highlights include “to foster and maintain integrity, professionalism, civility and high standards of conduct by NSBA members,” and to help “provide quality support and services for NSBA members.”

I appreciate the efforts that our attorneys and staff have made to be leaders in the legal community, as both participating in and leading the legal conversations that affect our clients is important.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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