The owner of an Orlando construction company has been charged with avoiding at least $300,000 of workers’ compensation premium payments by misrepresenting information regarding his employees and payroll when he was applying for a workers’ compensation insurance policy. Florida Department of Financial Services (FDFS) compliance officers discovered irregularities with the number of the company’s employees and its payroll during its policy period. Authorities are alleging that the company reported $148,000 of payroll when more than $2.7 million of payroll checks were cashed. Two requests for documentation of employees and payroll information to the company from FDFS were ignored. After that, FDFS agents put their case against the employer together by going to job sites and inquiring who workers on those sites were employed by and who they were paid by.
The company’s owner was charged with workers’ compensation premium fraud and engaging in an organized scheme to defraud. Both are first degree felonies and punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
If an on-the-job injury occurs, workers should be protected by their employer’s workers’ compensation insurance coverage. If appropriate coverage isn’t in place, employees who are hurt on-the-job could face lost earnings along with large out-of-pocket medical expenses. Under Florida law, any company with four or more employees is required to have sufficient workers’ compensation insurance. In recognizing the dangers involved in construction work, Florida law requires that even a construction company with only one employee is required to have appropriate coverage.
Evan Ostfeld is an established Florida workers’ compensation attorney with more than 20 years of legal experience. His main office is in Coral Springs, but he represents injured workers across Florida.
Florida workers’ compensation laws might seem automatic, but they’re actually quite complicated. If your employer isn’t carrying sufficient workers’ compensation insurance, it might be very difficult for you to obtain those benefits if you’re hurt at work. That’s why it’s best to call Evan Ostfeld right away after any work-related injury. He has the legal training, skills and experience that are necessary to handle any workers’ compensation case anywhere in Florida. If you or somebody close to you has been hurt on the job anywhere in Florida, contact attorney Evan Ostfeld at www.attorney4life.com or call us toll free at 866-478-3968.
