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| | Del Real Father And Son Plead Guilty To Four Felony Counts Of Workers’ Compensation Fraud In Salinas, California By Lonce Lamonte and the California Department of Insurance - November 20, 2017
The two ran a farm labor business and denied medical treatment to legitimately injured laborers
Jaime Rosario Del Real, 61, and son Israel Del Real, 37, both pleaded guilty to four felony counts for their role in a $400,000 insurance fraud scheme denying workers' compensation insurance and medical care for injured workers.
The father and son duo were sentenced to 250 days in jail, 10 years felony probation, and ordered to pay $382,951 in restitution. This case was prosecuted by the Monterey County District Attorney's Office.
"Business owners are responsible for the safety and care of their employees," said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "Employers who fail to carry workers' compensation insurance or pay for the medical care for injured workers violate the law and put their employees at risk. Our detectives and the Monterey County District Attorney's team succeeded in taking another dishonest employer out of the underground marketplace."
Doing business as Del Real Produce and Packing and Del Real Packing, LLC, the Del Reals worked as farm labor contractors providing laborers for picking and packing lettuce for growers in Monterey County and Yuma Arizona. After receiving information from an insurer, Department of Insurance detectives found the Del Reals had concealed injuries their workers sustained and refused to pay for medical treatment or provide other benefits to which the injured workers were entitled. The Del Reals were consequently arrested without incident on April 26, 2016.
The investigation also revealed that over a five year period, the Del Reals lied more than 20 times in order to obtain reduced insurance premiums. As part of their premium theft the Del Reals kept two sets of Employment Development Division (EDD) forms, with different employees and a different number of employees listed, which allowed the Del Reals to evade paying payroll taxes.
lonce@adjustercom.com; Lonce Lamonte, journalist; in coordination with the CA Dept of Insurance news release.
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