Review the cases and ask yourself, should not they have to follow their own "rules"?
A Grays Harbor County Superior Court judge sentenced Sherwin D. Phillips to 30 days in jail, which was converted to 240 hours of community service. In addition, Phillips was fined $1,110 and ordered to pay $9,545.76 in restitution to the Department of Labor and Industries.
Phillips was receiving workers' compensation disability benefits for an injury he sustained in March 2000 while working as a technician for a pest-control company in Olympia.
An investigation showed that while Phillips was receiving disability benefits from that injury he worked at his own pest-control business, Advance Pest Prevention, in Aberdeen. Phillips did not inform the department that he had gone back to work.
Doctors Randall E. Woodward and Patrick K. Osborne also were ordered to pay restitution to the Department of Labor and Industries and Premera Blue Cross. Late last week, L&I received a check for $78,789.97. Premera was paid $70,000. The pair also paid $3,000 in fines.
The convictions came after an 18-month investigation by the FBI, the U.S. Postal Service, Premera Blue Cross, Orion Insurance Co. and fraud experts in L&I’s Provider Fraud Program.
In addition to the repayment, L&I has revoked the two chiropractors eligibility to treat workers injured on the job.
TUMWATER – A 48-year-old laborer and farm worker has been ordered to repay the state $114,000 in benefits and penalties after he fraudulently collected disability payments while working at various jobs in Central Washington.
A fraud investigation conducted by the Department of Labor and Industries found that over a period of six years, Francisco Soriano-Arias worked under the alias of Juan Martinez while collecting benefits for an injury he sustained in 1980. The L&I fraud order includes a 50 percent penalty on the benefits he collected between 1994 and 2000.
Soriano-Arias was using the name Juan Rameriz when he was working for a potato processing plant in Pasco on Aug. 28, 1980. He was cleaning a potato machine when he got his right hand caught. Three surgeries followed, including one in 1989 to reconstruct his hand.
L&I attempted to close the claim over the years, but each time Soriano-Arias and his attorney appealed and won. Attempts at vocational rehabilitation failed.
Labor and Industries launched its investigation after receiving an anonymous letter alleging Soriano-Arias had been working under an alias and using another Social Security number. The investigation found that while claiming he was disabled and collecting benefits, Soriano-Arias worked at a variety of full-time jobs.
The investigation of Soriano-Arias is part of a stepped-up fraud investigation effort at all levels by the Department of Labor and Industries. Over the past 12 months, the agency has issued dozens of fraud orders against workers who were illegally collecting time-loss benefits. Some of the orders have been to collect payments and penalties as high as $425,000.
With the support of county prosecutors, L&I has pursued providers who defraud taxpayers and the agency. In one case, the owner of a hearing aid company went to jail for improperly billing L&I.
The agency also has stepped up its audits of unregistered employers who don't report hours and therefore aren't contributing their fair share to the workers' compensation fund. In the most recent two-year period, ending Feb. 28, 2002, L&I conducted 1,364 audits and assessed more than $5.6 million in premiums.
Labor and Industries manages the states workers' compensation system. It provides coverage for 163,000 employers and more than 1.9 million workers.
Clark County prosecutors filed charges last week against Larry J. and Phyllis Ann Brossard of Brush Prairie. The couple pleaded not guilty.
The Brossards already face several other counts of falsifying payroll records to avoid paying $224,000 in taxes. Included in that amount are workers’ compensation premiums owed for employees of several companies the couple owns, including Brossard Excavating and Bumper Boats. During that investigation, which dates back to 1996, sheriff’s deputies also discovered the couple was growing marijuana.
An on-going investigation by L&I auditors recently turned up another company owned by the couple. An audit of that company revealed that between August 2000 and March 2002 the Brossards knowingly misrepresented to L&I the number of hours worked and the amount of their payroll for drivers working at Bandits Express.
The L&I case is expected to go to trial on July 15.
Clark County Superior Court Judge John Wulle ruled that the marijuana charges against the Brossards be tried separately from the criminal workers’ compensation case that resulted from the L&I investigation. The drug trial is scheduled for April 15.
The prosecution of the Brossards is part of a stepped-up fraud investigation effort at all levels by the Department of Labor and Industries. Between March 1998 and March 2000, the agency conducted 724 audits of unregistered employers who weren’t reporting hours and therefore weren’t contributing to the workers’ compensation fund. In the most recent two-year period, ending Feb. 28, 2002, L&I conducted 1,364 audits and assessed more than $5.6 million in premiums.
Other areas of fraud also have received attention. Over the past 12 months, the agency has issued dozens of fraud orders against injured workers who were illegally collecting time-loss benefits. Some of the orders have been to collect payments and penalties as high as $425,000.
And last summer, L&I inspectors and auditors began focusing on residential wood framers who weren’t contributing to the workers’ compensation program. That initiative is about to enter a new phase next month, when L&I appeals to home builders and general contractors to stop doing business with framing subcontractors who aren’t registered and don’t have an up-to-date account with the state’s industrial insurance program.
“Our goal is to level the playing field, so that an employer who breaks the law doesn’t have a financial advantage over a company that looks out for its employees’ welfare by contributing to workers’ compensation,” said Joel Sacks, deputy director of L&I.
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