Workers’ Comp Investigation Brings in 13 Arrests

Due to a concentrated effort to crackdown on people who are receiving unjustifiable Workers’ Compensation benefits, 13 people in eight different counties have been arrested.

According to the New York State Insurance Department many of the accused were working side jobs while collecting benefits for injuries that were supposed to have left them physically unable to work.

“It’s always wrong when people take benefits they don’t deserve and it’s particularly troubling now because resources are scarce in today’s economy. Workers’ compensation benefits need to go to people who are legitimately entitled to receive them and not to those who would cheat the system,” Insurance Superintendent James Wrynn said.

In Steuben County a Wayland woman named Linda Fox was arrested and accused of fraudulently collecting $10,000 while running a ceramic supply store. According to the Insurance Department, Fox stated that she was not working, but allegedly changed her tune and decided that she did own the business. This was probably due to the surveillance videos recorded by investigators which she was shown and seemed to contradict her original statement.

Daniel Fauth of Webster, in Monroe County faces a charge for collecting $716 in Workers’ Compensation fraud benefits. Fauth was arrested after investigators obtained surveillance videos of him working at a landscaping business after claiming to be unemployed.  That could prove to be a very costly $716 for Mr. Fauth. 

These two arrests and eleven more are the result of investigations conducted by local law enforcement agencies, the Insurance Department’s Frauds Bureau, the Workers’ Compensation Board Office of the Fraud Inspector General, the New York Insurance Fund, and insurance company special investigative units.

[P]eople who illegally double-dip are often discovered in routine insurance company audits. In other cases, co-workers, and even relatives, have been known to turn them in.

In the last year alone, the Frauds Bureau received 1,352 reports of suspected fraud. The resulting investigations lead to the arrests of 119 New Yorkers for Workers’ Compensation related crimes.

For the full list of arrests, click here.

And as always, all parties are innocent until proven guilty. These are merely allegations as there have been no convictions.