There's every day run of the mill, garden variety fraud, that we generally see in workers' compensation.
And then there's truly innovative fraud - something much more rare.
This morning's WorkCompCentral News has a story about Carlos Perry, who received a prison sentence for a scheme that is, perhaps, the most imaginative theatrical performance in the world of fraud: playing the roles of employer and injured employees (yes, plural) simultaneously.
Perry, 57, impersonated the owner of a nonexistent business in Virginia and Tennessee, filed fraudulent injury claims on behalf of fake employees, and then impersonated the fake employees and having their fake injuries examined at real doctor’s visits.
In fact, when he was arrested, Perry was at a doctor’s office, once again impersonating a nonexistent injured worker.
Perry used 19 fictitious identities between January 2011 and Jan. 29, 2014 prior to his arrest.
The criminal complaint against Perry said that he established a business in Virginia known as Taylor Heating and Cooling in January 2013. He used a post office box to receive letters from Virginia’s Workers’ Compensation Commission and used three false identities to obtain insurance coverage for employees: Robert Taylor, Matthew Johnson and Kenneth Perry.
Perry filed an accident report claim form for Matthew Johnson in March, and a claim for benefits for Kenneth Perry in early April 2013.
In December 2013, Carlos Perry went to a doctor’s appointment in Bristol, Tennessee, and posed as Kenneth Perry, according to the complaint. Video showed Perry sitting in the lobby and leaving the office, and he was observed leaving in a Ford Explorer with a license plate registered to him. He attended another doctor’s appointment on Jan. 13, 2014, according to the complaint, this time posing as Matthew Johnson.
The National Insurance Crime Bureau referred the case to the Secret Service because identity theft is one of that agency’s primary investigative realms. Perry used the Social Security numbers of real people to establish the false identities of his employees.
According to court documents, Perry had a number of previous convictions, including a fraud conviction in 1981, a conviction for mail fraud and fraudulent use of a Social Security number in 2000. Court documents also stated that when he was taken into custody, Perry had two outstanding warrants for his arrest on a Florida probation violation.
Perry was sentenced earlier this month to 12 years in federal prison and restitution of $324,914.70. He has a history of criminal activity.
I wonder if this person also pretended to be his own defense attorney in this matter.
ReplyDeleteYes, Kevin. However, he posed as the judge and held himself in contempt. His last recorded words were, "I hold myself in contempt! Wait..."
DeleteI love the name of his fictitious company: Fill-in-the-Blank Heating and Air Conditioning!
ReplyDeleteThis is where the WC insurance carrier's need to wake up & maybe think about investigating the business's they choose to insure. Why take anyone's word of the description of the business & who the employees are? How do carrier's know if an employer is providing the correct amt. of Payroll or classifications? Or postings put up in the place of business? Even if an auditor goes to the facility or jobsite to inspect the book's, do they take the time to look around & make sure the employer has the legally required I & I plan? Safety poster's? Employees working where they should be as classified? I worked for an ER who purposely kept the Sales team out of the Warehouse when the auditor was in the bldg.; not telling the EE'S why, but I knew it was because we weren't shown to work in the warehouse as we did every day. The ER showed us to only be the inside Sales class in order to pay a cheaper ex-mod. If restaurants get surprise visits from the health dept., why not ALL employer's? I think the Carrier should be penalized in this type of case where they clearly did not have all of the information they should have had & made sure it was legit. They're too lazy. As long as they have policies coming in, that's all that matters I guess.
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