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There may be no more Home Insurance Company policies being issued, but the fight against fraud continues on cases opened by their then-SIU.
Such was the case that led to the guilty pleas of Michael Feinberg of Woodbridge, Connecticut, to charges of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and misprision of felony relating to the commission of pension fraud and embezzlement from a Boston roofing union’s pension funds.
For a long time, as corporate counsel to two of the largest roofing contractors in New England, B.H. Cutler Roofing and Titan Roofing (the former headquartered in Worcester and the latter headquartered in Chicopee), Feinberg had it pretty good. Among other tasks, he provided The Home and its auditor with fraudulent payroll records which were used to determine the workers’ compensation coverage premiums. According to the prosecution, Feinberg knew the numbers were off and the books were doctored, but he stood silently by when the then owner of B.H. Cutler Roofing, Arthur Grodd, committed pension fraud and embezzlement by using the same fraudulent books to compute contributions to Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) accounts.
Local 33 pension funds were audited in 1989, 1993 and 1995 due to apparent discrepancies between the total hours employees worked and the Cutler remittance reports. During each of these audits, Feinberg supplied the auditor with the doctored computer summaries to confirm the misrepresentations made to reach the too-low contribution amounts.
Grodd pleaded guilty to the pension fraud and embezzlement charges and was sentenced to prison. On July 24, the scheduled sentencing date for Feinberg, he may join his former employer behind bars. He faces five years on one count, three years on the other, and a half million dollars in potential fines.
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