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Donna Gallagher is a tough cookie. But she has to be tough because she manages the Fraud Investigation Program (FIP) for the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF), one of California’s largest workers’ compensation carriers. With 211,000 policyholders, SCIF returns excess premiums (above expenses, claims payments and necessary surplus) to its policyholders.
Plain and simple. Doug and Ricki Stricker should have picked on some other company. SCIF does not tolerate fraud and pursues it relentlessly. And so it was with the Strickers when they tried to pull one of the largest workers’ compensation frauds in the history of San Diego.
Stricker Organization, an Escondido roofing company, did substantial amounts of work in Southern California — including a major renovation job at Camp Pendleton. By manipulating the various worker classifications used to compute their insurance premiums, they underpaid by more than $550,000.
The Strickers were convicted on felony counts of tax evasion, payroll tax fraud and insurance fraud and have both been sentenced to time behind bars. Additionally, they must pay $475,485 in restitution to SCIF and $80,303 to the State Employment Development Department.
Way to go FIP.
© 2000 John Cooke Fraud Report