Fraud Roundup

Wash. trooper accused of taking workers’ comp while off fishing

A Washington state trooper accused of falsely claiming $20,000 worth of workers’ compensation benefits has been charged in Olympia, Wash., with theft and perjury.

Thirty-five-year-old James A. Long of Chinook, who is assigned to Pacific County, injured his wrist in February of last year during training at the State Patrol Academy.

A Patrol spokesman, Captain Jeff DeVere, says Long collected benefits from the Department of Labor and Industries for lost wages for seven months until he returned to work.

During his seven months off, he recorded about 40 fish catches with fishery authorities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Wheeler says if the trooper was able to go fishing on the ocean he could have been working at light duty at a desk job for the patrol.

His arraignment is scheduled in Thurston County Superior Court. He also faces an internal investigation by the State Patrol.

Long could not be reached for comment. A phone call to the only Long in Chinook available from directory assistance was not answered.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Pride Industries employee arrested for workers’ compensation fraud

A Sacramento man has turned himself in for insurance fraud. Darren Stanton was a long term employee of Pride Industries, an employer of people with disabilities, according to LWP Claims Solutions Inc. On March 28, 2005, Stanton suffered an accepted injury to his right shoulder. As a result of his injury, he underwent shoulder surgery and received temporary disability from LWP Claims Solutions Inc.

Based on a review of facts, LWP Claims Solutions said it began to suspect that the injured employee was working while collecting temporary total disability benefits. At that time, the case was referred to the company’s strategic partner for SIU, Probe Information Services. It was learned through a thorough investigation that Stanton was working while receiving TTD benefits, LWP said. Upon receipt of the information LWP Claims Solutions stopped TTD benefits.

Based on the facts of the case, a referral was made by LWP/Probe to the California Department of Insurance Fraud Division. After conducting an investigation to confirm the facts the division presented the case to the Sacramento County District Attorney, who issued an arrest warrant. Derrick Stanton was charged with two felony counts of Insurance Code 1871.4 (a)(1).

If convicted, Stanton faces imprisonment in county jail for one year, state prison for two to five years, or by a fine not exceeding $150,000 or double the value of the fraud, whichever is greater, or by both imprisonment and fine.

The investigation was conducted as part of an aggressive SIU program used by LWP Claims Solutions, an alliance with Probe Information Services that has been ongoing since October 2004.

LA Police Investigating Whether Elderly Pair Scammed Third Man

Los Angeles police are investigating the traffic death of a third man linked to a pair of elderly women accused of taking out insurance policies on two transients who later died in hit-and-run crashes.

The latest suspicions arose when investigators found that Helen Golay, 75, and her daughter moved a 97-year-old man from Massachusetts into a Santa Monica apartment. They acquired his home for $1, borrowed money off of it and then sold the home for $200,000, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The man, Fred Downie, was later struck and killed by a driver in what police still believe was an accident, Lt. Paul Vernon, a Police Department spokesman, told the Associated Press.

Vernon said police do not think the driver who hit Downie in 2000 had any connection to Golay or Olga Rutterschmidt, 73. But he said the relationship with Downie mirrored others that led to the scams with which the women have been charged.

Authorities say Golay and Rutterschmidt befriended vulnerable men, persuaded them to sign them on to their life insurance policies and then collected some $2.3 million after they were killed. Police are investigating whether the women also played a role in their deaths. Hungarian immigrant Paul Vados died in 1999, and Kenneth McDavid was killed last year.

Golay and Rutterschmidt pleaded not guilty to federal mail fraud and related charges. They have not been charged in any of the deaths.

Golay’s lawyer, Roger Jon Diamond, dismissed the latest suspicions as nonsense.

“Life is filled with coincidences,” Diamond said. “It is a titillating issue for some lawyers. But it is not a criminal case, there was no wrongdoing, she’s not a suspect. She fully cooperated. That should be the end of the matter.”

Vernon said police are continuing to investigate connections between the two women and close to a dozen other men — a number that has doubled in the past week.

c:Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.