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Maryland authorities announced the arrest of Francis A. Maher of Baltimore for his role in stealing workers’ compensation insurance services worth over $3.6 million from the Injured Workers Insurance Fund (IWIF). Criminal Information filed by the Attorney General in Baltimore County Circuit Court also charges Maher with one count of State income tax evasion. The charges are the culmination of a four-month investigation by the In-surance Fraud Division of the Maryland Insurance Administration, the Office of the Attorney General and the Maryland State Police into Donnybrook Associates, Inc., a business run by Maher. During the investigation, a search-and-seizure warrant was executed at Maher’s home by members of the Maryland State Police assigned to the Insurance Fraud Division. The warrant resulted in the recovery of voluminous records implicating Maher in the scam.
The State alleges that Maher developed a scheme whereby he was able to avoid paying the appropriate insurance premiums to IWIF. IWIF is a quasi-governmental organization that provides workers’ compensation insurance coverage to companies in Maryland. Since IWIF bases its premiums on the gross payroll (as reported by an insured), Maher was able to avoid paying the full premium by fraudulently underreporting Donnybrook’s payroll to IWIF. It is further alleged that Maher would report to IWIF that Donnybrook’s annual payroll was actually in the millions. This underreporting occurred over a period of almost five years, from 1990 until the fall of 1995. By underreporting the payroll, Maher was able to avoid paying over $3.6 million in premiums to IWIF.
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