CA IC Announces Arrest Of Business Owner For Alleged WC Fraud

Sacramento, CA (CompNewsNetwork) - Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced today the arrest of a Sacramento man in connection with alleged workers' compensation insurance fraud. Juan Arteaga Enriquez, 38, was booked into the Sacramento County jail May 12 with bail set at $75,000. He was charged with three felony counts including misrepresenting fact to obtain insurance at less than proper rate, making false statements to discourage workers' compensation claim, concealing or failing to disclose an event affecting insurance benefit.

"Lying to your insurance company in order to get a lower rate is illegal and drives up costs for everyone in the system," said Commissioner Poizner. "Even worse is pressuring your employees to lie about their injuries just so you can save some money. Crimes like these are dangerous for workers and will not be tolerated in California."

The Department of Insurance received a complaint from a former employee of Juan's Roofing regarding an injury he had suffered while employed at Juan's Roofing. The former employee reported that he had suffered a broken elbow after falling off of a roof in Elk Grove, California. He was transported by Enriquez to the Woodland Healthcare Hospital for treatment which required surgery. The former employee was allegedly told by Enriquez to lie to the hospital staff about where and how he was injured. Juan's Roofing has a workers' compensation insurance policy through State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF); however, no claim was ever filed on behalf of the employee for his injury.

During the investigation, SCIF conducted an audit for policy period July 7, 2008 through July 7, 2009. The SCIF auditor uncovered unreported payroll to SCIF in the amount of $15,829.22 with approximately 20 employees employed by Juan's Roofing. The Employment Development Department (EDD) was contacted and confirmed that Juan's Roofing was not reporting any payroll to EDD as required by law. As a result of the investigation, felony insurance code, premium fraud, penal code and unemployment insurance code charges were filed against Juan Arteaga Enriquez, owner of Juan's Roofing.

Commissioner Poizner oversees sixteen CDI Enforcement Branch regional offices throughout the state. Nearly 2,800 insurance fraud-related arrests have been made by CDI since Commissioner Poizner took office in 2007 - more arrests than have been made during any other three year period, under any previous insurance commissioner.

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