At this time, all of the aforementioned accused are conjoined together into one case, and the pre-trial hearing date is set for July 17, 2009.  No jury trial is set, as of yet.

The July 17th pre-trial hearing will take place at Central Superior Court in the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, California. 

According to the Orange County District Attorney's office, the alleged fraud was discovered when AIG received a payment demand letter from a hospital in February 2007 for an outstanding medical lien, which had been paid to Rene Montes.  Montes, who was the owner of W.C. Surgery Centers in La Habra and W.C.S.C. & Associates in Riverside, had already received payment for the hospital's services but did not pay over the approximately $100,000 owed the hospital according to its lien, to the hospital. Allegedly Montes did not have authority to negotiate this lien on behalf of the hospital, but acted in collusion with either Porrata, Martinez, or Cruz-Thompson to settle and receive payment for the lien.

When AIG received the hospital's payment demand letter early in 2007, it conducted an internal audit and discovered Porrata, Martinez and Cruz-Thompson were the only claims adjusters to have settled liens with Montes. AIG reported its findings to the Orange County DA's office.

Porrata, Martinez and Cruz-Thompson allegedly paid Montes more than $1,170,000 while they worked as work comp claims adjusters at AIG.   Porrata and Cruz-Thompson are also accused of fraudulently settling Montes' claims and paying him $310,000 when they worked at TPA Matrix Absence Management.

Cara Cruz-Thompson is booked and being held at the Central Women's Jail in Santa Ana, California, under the name of Cara Ann Cruz.  Rene Montes, Hector Porrata, and George Martinez are in the Central Men's Jail at 555 No. Flower Street in Santa Ana, California.