Businessmen Pay Restitution to N.Y. Workers Comp Fund

Two Suffolk County, N.Y. business people who pleaded guilty in cases involving workers’ compensation fraud have paid The New York State Insurance Fund a total of more than $7,800 in restitution.

Robert Ristenpadt, 34, of 87 Hudson Avenue, Lake Grove, New York and Ann Marie Loliscio, 48, of 17 Stacey Drive, Port Jefferson Station, New York, were arrested in a fraud sweep on November 14, 2005. NYSIF said that both defendants pleaded guilty to misdemeanors on June 29, 2006 and received one-year conditional discharges in addition to paying the money they owed to NYSIF.

“Individuals who defraud the workers’ compensation system are committing a crime, plain and simple,” NYSIF CEO David P. Wehner said in announcing the convictions. “We investigate fraud against NYSIF with the full intention of seeing cases end in prosecution and conviction.”

According to NYSIF, Ristenpadt gave a forged insurance certificate, falsely indicating he had a valid workers’ compensation policy, to a NYSIF-insured contractor, leaving the contractor liable for $1,264.03 in premium. Ristenpadt made restitution to NYSIF for that amount after pleading guilty to an attempted violation of Section 114 of the Workers’ Compensation Law, officials said.

Also, according to the fund, Loliscio submitted a false application for insurance to NYSIF in 2005, when she did not disclose that she owed $6,539 on a prior cancelled NYSIF policy. She pleaded guilty to making a false written statement and paid that amount in restitution, reported NYSIF.

NYSIF is a competitive insurance fund for workers’ compensation and disability benefits. Approximately 195,000 employers hold NYSIF workers’ compensation insurance policies, constituting about 37 percent of the market.

Source: NYSIF