N.Y. Dance Company Owner Charged With False Workers’ Comp Claim

November 20, 2005

The owner of a Catskills dance camp, in which five students and a counselor died in a July car crash, has been charged with falsifying insurance papers, authorities said.

Irina Mironova, a counselor at the Atlanta Dance Company, was killed along with five campers ranging in age from 12 to 16 when the car Mironova was driving slammed into a dump truck.

Sullivan County District Attorney Steve Lungen said the camp’s owner, Anna Kapitannikov, had canceled her required compensation insurance in 2002. But the state Insurance Fraud Bureau determined Kapitannikov faked state paperwork and claimed to still have a comp policy.

Kapitannikov, whose 16-year-old son was killed in the crash, left the country in mid-October. A warrant has been issued for her arrest, charging her with falsifying business records and failure to maintain workers’ comp coverage, authorities said.

Witnesses reported that Mironova’s driving before the crash was reckless and erratic. She also had a suspended license in Florida for driving in excess of 100 miles per hour.