Texas pair busted for an elaborate scheme
- A couple in Houston, Texas, was sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in a $126 million fraud scheme.
- The two were a few in the scam involving 9 defendants who were sentenced for their roles in a scheme to defraud the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and a healthcare program for U.S. service members and their families.
- The couple, 52-year-old John Cruise and 50-year-old LaShonia Jackson owned a Harris County pharmacy, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
- The nine defendants submitted false claims to the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and TRICARE for prescriptions of drugs normally prescribed to injured federal workers.
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Ohio jeweler repay workers’ comp
- A jeweler in Cleveland, Ohio has paid back thousands of dollars in restitution to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation after a recent conviction.
- Ashwin Naran, of Cleveland, reimbursed $42,760 to the BWC. This came after he pleaded guilty to workers’ compensation fraud in September.
- The BWC Special Investigations Department began investigating Naran after he was identified as possibly working as a sales associate for a jeweler while collecting BWC disability benefits.
- The investigation found that he was working and underreporting his income for multiple periods from 2019 through 2021. During that time, he was also collecting working wage loss disability benefits to which he was not entitled.
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Nurses help get PTSD workers’ comp bill passed in Washington
- The Washington State Nurses Association partnered with state senator Sen. Annette Cleveland for a bill in 2023 allowing nurses to claim PTSD for work exposure, not just a single event.
- The bill later became law.
- The law now states, “there exists a prima facie presumption that post-traumatic stress disorder is an occupational disease” under state law governing industrial insurance.
- It applies to a direct-care registered nurse who has been fully employed in Washington state for at least 90 consecutive days.
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Contractor pleads guilty to fraud
- The owner of a Minnesota construction company pleaded guilty to charges of workers’ compensation insurance fraud earlier this month.
- Nelson Israel Lopez Giron, owner of the wood-framing company Giron Construction, initially offered the worker eye drops and then told the worker to lie about how he suffered the injury when he sought medical help, according to the initial charging documents.
- Giron also did not report the injury to insurance and then denied knowing the workers.
- Giron told his insurer he didn’t have any employees even though he had 15 direct employees on the job site the day the worker was injured.
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