Video surveillance capturing Ema Pantoja, 52, of Greenfield, performing activities inconsistent with her testimony provided the fodder necessary for the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office to file charges for insurance fraud, according to a release.

In January 2007, Pantoja alleged she sustained an injury to her left wrist and elbow while working in the fields owned by Scheid Vineyards. Although she received medical treatment and returned to work, by May 2007 Pantoja told an investigator she was unable to do anything with her lefthand, a premise she repeated to multiple doctors.

On May 7, 2008, Pantoja testified at a hearing about her physical limitations. She continued to receive medical treatment until May 2010.

Although Pantoja stated she couldn’t even drive and was forced to wear a wrist brace at all times, she was caught on tape performing impossible activities if her injury were true, according to the release.

She will be sentenced by Judge Larry Hayes on June 27. Insurance fraud as a felony carries a maximum penalty of five years in the California Department of Corrections and a fune of up to $150,000 or double the fraud amount. In addition, she may be on the hook for restitution which can include attorney’s fees and the cost of investigation.

Edward Idukas, 28, handed over a check during the court proceedings to cover the full amount, prosecutor Ernesto Acosta said.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee set sentencing for June 13.

Idukas faces up to four years behind bars but will not likely get a harsh sentence, Acosta said.

“Other than committing workers’ compensation fraud, he doesn’t have anything else on his record,” Acosta said. “The guy is a former cop.”

Outside the courtroom, Idukas’ lawyer, David S. Kestenbaum, said his client was remorseful.

“He’s lost his whole career and had to move his family out of state and picked up a new career. This is all he wanted to be: a police officer,” Kestenbaum said.

“I hope in the interest of justice the judge reduces it to a misdemeanor and doesn’t impose jail. He’s suffered a lot as a result of his mistake. But before that he had done a lot of good for the community and received a lot of commendations … from the Oxnard PD.” Idukas was placed on temporary total disabled status after he told a supervisor on Dec. 29, 2009, that he hurt his back while bending over at his locker and had pain and limited mobility, according to court records. He received disability pay for several months.

Investigators discovered Idukas was playing baseball weekly in a local adult league while receiving disability benefits from the city of Oxnard, according to court records. While these activities were taking place, Idukas told doctors and physical therapists that he was too disabled to return to his duties as a police officer, prosecutors said.

Kestenbaum said he thinks Idukas, who was arrested in June 2011, is innocent. But he was offered a good plea bargain, so he took it, Kestenbaum said.

“He was not hiding what he was doing and felt he had received bad advice — that he could resume playing baseball to strengthen his back,” Kestenbaum said. “From our standpoint, there is a big difference in playing baseball, where you can say timeout if your back hurts, than being in a squad car in El Rio and there is no timeout in the field.

“Psychologically, he didn’t feel he could be a police officer (with a back injury). That was one of the problems.”

Antonio Torres Arias, 47, and Nayeli Iliana Torres, 22, each pleaded not guilty during their Thursday, March 14, arraignment in the downtown Riverside Hall of Justice courthouse. Their next court date is April 4.

Investigators said the defendants operated several companies that leased employees to the Cardenas Markets supermarket chain. There is no information that Cardenas Markets was involved in any of the alleged wrongdoing, a news release from the district attorney’s office said.

Arias and Torres are each charged with five felonies – four counts of misrepresentation to obtain workers’ compensation insurance and one count of tax evasion. If convicted as charged, each could face up to 16 years in prison.

Arias and Torres conducted the alleged fraud to reduce the amount of premiums owed for workers’ compensation insurance. They used “cash pay” employees, misclassified employee jobs, and concealed the history of employees’ workplace injuries as far back as 2009, prosecutors said.

Two of the defendants’ companies included Torres Services and Torres Cleaning. The companies that authorities say were wronged in the case include First Comp Insurance, Chartis Insurance, National Fire Insurance and the state Employment Development Department.

The case was investigated for about nine months by a task force that includes the Riverside County District Attorney’s office and the California Department of Insurance. Authorities were alerted to the case by investigators from First Comp Insurance.

The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Michael Mayman, of the office’s Insurance Fraud Unit of the Special Prosecution Section.

Jail records showed Torres is out of custody; Arias remained in jail early Thursday evening on $1.7 million bail.

VISTA — A dispute brewing for more than two years between the state and a North County religious organization may have been quietly resolved late last year.

The conflict began in June 2010 when inspectors for the state Division of Labor Standards visited the Yellow Deli, a funky sandwich-and-coffee cafe in downtown Vista, and Morning Star Ranch in Valley Center. Both are owned by a group called Twelve Tribes or The Community of Apostolic Order.

State inspectors asked workers at the restaurant and ranch for proof of workers’ compensation insurance and were told that there was no insurance policy because the establishments had no employees, only volunteers.

The state issued a $10,000 fine for the Yellow Deli — $1,000 per worker — and a $4,000 fine for the ranch, but the Twelve Tribes appealed the fines, saying that the deli and the ranch were owned by the religious community for the benefit of its members.

James Peterson, a lawyer who represented the group, said Monday that a “confidential settlement” with the state was reached in September. Peterson declined to discuss the terms of the agreement.

A spokesman for the state said Tuesday that he did not have information immediately available about any potential agreement. He said the attorney representing the state in the case was unavailable for comment until next week.

Terry Francke, the general counsel of the open-government group Californians Aware, said he could think of no reason why the agreement would be confidential.

The Twelve Tribes was recognized as a religious nonprofit 501(d) by the Internal Revenue Service in 1977, according to case documents filed in San Diego Superior Court. Under IRS rules, a religious organization is allowed to operate businesses for the benefit of its members.

In a similar case, the state of Vermont determined in 1994 that the Twelve Tribes group was exempt from that state’s workers’ compensation requirements because of its status as a religious nonprofit, according to case documents.

The Twelve Tribes opened the Yellow Deli, a popular restaurant in Vista, in February 2010. The same group runs another Yellow Deli restaurant in Valley Center and the Morning Star Ranch, where members grow the fruits and vegetables used in the food sold at the delis.

The produce is also sold to local markets and at farmers’ markets, according to case documents. The businesses generate revenue that is used to pay for the group’s food, utilities and other necessities.

Members of the group work at the businesses but they are not paid money, according to case documents.

“Every member working for the Yellow Deli and the Morning Star Ranch live, in their own way, according to the early teachings of the Book of Acts — the way Christ lived in the early days, all in communal fashion,” according to documents. “In exchange, The Community provides for the physical needs of its members, such as food, clothing, shelter, medical expenses, etc.”

According to case documents, the state argued that the Yellow Deli and Morning Star Ranch each had business licenses with individual members listed as owners. For example, the Yellow Deli had a license listing Lee Keener and his wife, Anna Keener, as the owners.

Maria Arrieta, 51, is scheduled to be arraigned April 18 at the Victorville courthouse on seven counts of presenting false documentation for compensation and seven more counts of perjury, court records show.

According to a DA statement provided by Senior Investigator Jose Guzman, Arrieta filed a claim in 2010 alleging she slipped and fell on the job at a McDonald’s restaurant while removing a case of meat from the freezer.

But, according to Guzman, the suspect told her primary care physician that she had sustained her foot injury at home — not at work.

Arrieta then saw a foot specialist and “advised the doctor that she injured her foot at home on her day off from work,” Guzman reported. The specialist submitted paperwork to the Employment Development Department indicating a non-work-related injury.

But Arrieta then obtained a workers’ compensation attorney who filed a claim for her in May 2011, alleging that a slip-and-fall foot injury occurred at McDonald’s while she was working.

The insurance company referred the case to the DA’s Office Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fraud Unit in October 2011.

Arrieta was arrested Feb. 12, a day after criminal charges were filed against her by the DA’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fraud Unit.

“Generally speaking, this one came to light pretty easily,” said Deputy District Attorney Scott Byrd, who is prosecuting the case. “Most of the time suspects are trying to hide it somehow — be more sophisticated in their lying — but in this case she went to the doctor for a non-industrial injury, then later tried to claim it as an industrial injury.”

I’m concerned about my employees potentially abusing our workers’ compensation insurance. What should I look out for?

Workers’ compensation is an employee insurance benefit that covers workplace injuries. Employers are required to carry workers’ compensation coverage for their employees. Unfortunately, of the

$10 billion in workers’ compensation claims filed in California annually, up to

30 percent of those claims may be fraudulent.

My recommendation is that you shouldn’t have employees you don’t trust, and you should strive to keep your employees happy. But beyond that, there certainly are things you can do to prevent fraudulent workers’ compensation claims.

It is illegal to make, or assist someone in making, a knowingly false or fraudulent material statement for the purpose of obtaining or denying workers’ compensation, or to discourage an injured worker from claiming benefits.

What does “comp fraud” look like? If you deny an employee’s vacation request, and the employee suddenly suffers a workplace accident with no witnesses, which coincidentally keeps them out of work during the same days they requested off, you may want to investigate the accident further.

If your employee competes in a volleyball tournament over the weekend and then sprains their wrist at work first thing Monday morning, this could be fraud. In fact, any accident that occurs first thing Monday morning is a little suspicious.

Disgruntled ex-employees are always a red flag. If you are going to terminate an employee, conduct an exit interview and ask whether they have had any on-the-job accidents or injuries.

Another red flag is if your employee has a preexisting condition, such as a bad back, and then claim they sprained their back at work.

Another fraud indicator is when the employee waits several weeks to report an injury. There’s no reason to delay reporting a workplace injury.

Not every suspicious claim is “comp fraud,” but one or more indicators might justify further investigation. Every injury should be immediately and thoroughly investigated. If you are concerned about fraud, communicate your suspicions to your carrier.

The two best things an employer can do is to maintain a safe work environment and ensure that employees understand how accidents at work should be handled. Have a clear and easy procedure for reporting accidents.

The Napa District Attorney’s office enforces workers’ compensation fraud prevention and prosecution. If you know of possible workers’ compensation abuse, please call their Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit at 253-4059. In addition to criminal prosecution, the district attorney may bring a civil action to collect civil penalties for workers’ compensation fraud.

Mary Luros is a business law attorney with Hudson & Luros, LLP, in Napa, and can be reached atmary@hudson

luros.com or 418-5118. The information provided here is not intended as legal advice, nor does it form an attorney-client relationship with the author. The author makes no representations as to the reliability or accuracy of the above information. In a perfect world we wouldn’t need disclaimers — or attorneys.

The owner of a San Mateo pest and janitorial services company who prosecutors say under-reported more than $10 million of payroll to avoid paying more than $2 million in workers’ compensation insurance was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail and ordered to repay the money.

Teresa Reif, 34, faced up to 17 years in prison after pleading no contest in April to eight various counts of fraud without any sentencing promises. On Tuesday, Judge Craig Parson instead handed down the year jail followed by five years supervised probation. She must also repay $1,651,148 to the State Compensation Insurance Fund and $451,310 to Berkshire Hathaway.

Defense attorney Chuck Smith said he was “disappointed” in the sentence, calling the case a “sad, unfortunate situation” in which his client didn’t profit a nickel but insurance companies will now receive an extra $2 million. Prison was never a realistic concern, he said, but five years incarceration rather than the financial penalty would affect the life of her husband and three children much less significantly.

“She was given financial penalties akin to an inside trader,” Smith said. “This is unfair and far beyond the conduct that she committed.”

Smith had requested house arrest for Reif and said the Probation Department recommended the same.

The prosecution was pleased with the outcome, said District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Reif has operated the business with her brother since 2003 as the fourth-generation offshoot of the family business, according to the company’s website. The site also notes it has “grown by providing superior service, at a reasonable price, with honesty and reliability for over 80 years.”

Between 2004 and 2009, Reif purchased workers compensation insurance through Redwood Fire & Casualty Insurance Company and the State Compensation Insurance Fund for her business, Genesis Building Services.

In 2008, the insurance company said it received conflicting data from Genesis staff about the number of employees and began suspecting it was under-reporting its payroll by approximately $544,440. Further investigation by the California Department of Insurance placed the under-reported amount at $10,657,776.69 which resulted in Reif avoiding paying $2,957,089.20 in insurance premiums.

The CDI claims Reif misrepresented both the number of employees and its payroll when applying for insurance, while insured and during annual audits conducted by the carriers. Genesis allegedly employed more than 140 employees but Reif reported less than half the staff and gave auditors fraudulent paperwork to support the false monthly reports.

During a search of the business, investigators actually found the fraudulent books, according to prosecutors.

After Reif surrendered to authorities in April 2011, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones used the case as an example of what happens to those who commit fraud.

“Business owners should be on notice, egregiously under-reporting wages to avoid premium payments will not go unpunished,” Jones said in a prepared statement. “These violations will be fully investigated by my department.”

Reif was originally arrested on a $1 million warrant citing suspicion of 44 counts of fraud but was later released on her own recognizance.

The decision to settle the claim was made during a closed session portion of Tuesday’s City Council meeting, in which Council members voted 5-0 in favor of the action, according to Murrieta City Attorney Leslie Devaney. There was no public Council discussion on the matter.

Wright, who served as chief for eight years before accepting an early retirement incentive—two months’ salary—in April 2011, filed a claim for back injury as well as problems with his circulatory system, stomach, and skin, according to a report found on the California Division of Workers’ Compensation website.

Wright claims he suffered these injuries between July 2009 and July 2010 while fulfilling his job duties for the city, the claim information showed.

Current police Chief Mike Baray served as captain before being promoted to interim chief upon Wright’s retirement. Baray now serves as the city’s permanent chief.