An Orange County business owner and his office manager have been charged in an insurance fraud scheme that appears to have endangered employees and denied them wages, according to the California Department of Insurance.
Bobby Levell Gilbert Jr, owner of B&J Tree Service, faces 96 felony counts of wage theft, denying workers’ compensation benefits to employees, workers’ compensation fraud, failure to pay taxes and perjury, officials said.
His office manager, Bertha Rubi Sanchez, 30, of Anaheim, was also charged with multiple felonies for her alleged role in the scheme.
An investigation found that Gilbert allegedly took advantage of his workers by denying them what they earned “for his own enrichment,” according to the Department of Insurance.
In total, 32 workers were denied either wages or workers’ compensation benefits to which they were entitled if they were injured on the job, or both.
Between October 2013 and August 2021, Gilbert, 66, of Santa Ana, and Sanchez allegedly conspired to underreport payroll to their insurance carriers by approximately $1.3 million. Their failure to report employee payroll therefore resulted in a reduction in workers’ compensation insurance premiums, resulting in approximately $248,757 owed, officials said.
In addition, the underreported payroll also resulted in unpaid payroll taxes to the Employment Development Department of approximately $140,485.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case, and the two defendants are due back in court in December.
“Cases like this are particularly egregious because not only were workers put at great risk, but they were also denied their hard-earned wages,” Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a press release.
