First 2015 Employer Charged Over Alleged Workers Comp Premium Fraud

For those keeping score at home, here is the first news report I've spotted in 2015 about an employer being criminally charged for allegedly under-reporting payroll to lower Workers Comp insurance premiums.

As I've written before, this is a growing trend, and represents quite a change from those long-ago days when I was coming up in the wonderful world of Workers Comp insurance. Back then (when dinosaurs ruled the earth) it was not utterly uncommon for some employers to take a sort of "all's fair in love and Workers Comp) kind of attitude and if they thought they could get away with pulling a fast one on their Workers Comp insurer they would do it, justifying their actions by telling themselves that insurers took unfair advantage whenever they could so why shouldn't a poor beleaguered businessman play the same kind of game?

It was never right, of course, or fair. but criminal prosecutions seemed pretty rare back in those days. Nowadays, not so much, as they say. Prosecutors seem far more open to charging employers for allegedly cheating on Workers Comp insurance premiums, and so employers need to more careful than ever to avoid doing anything that gives the impression of fraud.

Of course, I would note that I am unaware of any insurance company having been criminally charged for overcharging on Workers Comp insurance. I mean, AIG got nailed by Eliot Spitzer and then got sued by NCCI and then Liberty Mutual and other insurers over deliberate and systemic practices that allegedly cheated on taxes, assessments and increased costs for the rest of the industry, but I don't recall any criminal charges ever being filed. Sauce for the goose isn't always sauce for the gander, I guess.