Owners of a Massachusetts Company Charged in Workers’ Comp Fraud Scheme
September 29, 2016
The owners of Caron Contracting, a Fall River, Mass., based contracting company, have been indicted on charges of workers’ compensation fraud over failure to disclose the true nature of their company’s work, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced in a press release.
Authorities believe this move allowed the owners to avoid paying more than $71,000 in workers’ compensation premiums, the release stated.
“We allege these defendants intentionally misrepresented the work performed by their company in order to avoid paying higher workers’ compensation costs,” said Attorney General Healey in the press release. “Our office is committed to investigating and prosecuting those who engage in this type of fraud for their own benefit.”
An investigation, initially referred to the Attorney General’s Office by the state’s Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), revealed that the Carons failed to disclose the true nature of the work their company performed between 2009 and 2014 in order to lower their workers’ compensation insurance premiums.
The Carons are believed to have defrauded two insurance companies under five separate insurance policies by describing their employees as carpenters during annual insurance audits. In fact, the investigation found that Caron Contracting is almost exclusively a roofing company.
“This type of fraud creates an unfair advantage for business owners who artificially lower their premiums to gain an edge over their competitors,” Anthony M. DiPaolo, chief of investigations at the IFB, said in the release.
Paul and Cynthia Caron were indicted by a statewide Grand Jury with five counts each of workers’ compensation fraud, while Cynthia Caron was also charged with five counts of larceny following the investigation.
That said, these charges are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The arraignment is scheduled for a later date in Bristol Superior Court.
This case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Geoffrey Wood of Attorney General Healey’s Insurance and Unemployment Fraud Unit with assistance from Senior Investigator Philip Mantyla, also of Attorney General Healey’s Insurance and Unemployment Fraud Unit, and investigators from the IFB.
Source: Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office