Reporting Fraudulent Information to the Workers’ Compensation Board Results in Criminal Charges

December 12, 2019

Lying to the workers’ compensation authorities in order to reduce premiums can result in criminal charges. On September 5, 2019, Manhattan D.A. and other New York state investigators announced the indictment of unlicensed labor broker Salvador Almonte and insurance broker Steven Asvasadourian on multiple fraud charges after they were caught in a scheme which included lying to the New York State Insurance Fund about the status and work of construction employees. Almonte and his accomplice underreported the size of Almonte’s companies and lied to insurance carriers about the type of work being performed to evade more than $1 million dollars in insurance premiums. In doing so, the pair left more than one hundred construction workers underinsured. In one instance, Almonte claimed that workers he sent to perform dangerous tasks on high-rise construction projects were cleaners, thereby drastically lowering the premium rates he paid.  Investigators found that more than 12 of Almonte’s workers have been injured in the past four years, one fatally, and Almonte refused to acknowledge to the New York Workers’ Compensation Board that he was their employer.

While this case illustrates extreme examples of fraud in the workers’ compensation system, the exposure to potential criminal liability for fraudulently reporting information to the workers’ compensation board is a legitimate, serious consequence of such actions.