California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that Joseph Baiden, 56, of Diamond Bar, surrendered to the Los Angeles Superior Court pursuant to an arrest warrant issued for eight counts of workers' compensation insurance premium fraud against State Fund. Baiden is being held on $1.64 million bail.The arrest came as the result of an investigation by the California Department of Insurance (CDI). Along with the arrest, CDI froze Baiden's bank accounts and seized numerous properties (listed at bottom) throughout the Los Angeles area estimated at $4 million. His primary residence was located in an exclusive, gated hilltop neighborhood in Diamond Bar.
The case is being prosecuted by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. Each count is a felony and, if convicted on all counts, Baiden faces a maximum of 40 years in prison as well as $3.2 million in fines.
In September 2008, CDI received a referral from State Fund alleging that Baiden, doing business as Nurse Connection Inc., was underreporting his workers' comp payroll on the quarterly payroll reports. According to the referral, State Fund received an anonymous tip that Baiden had falsified payroll records as well as California and federal tax filings for the years 2001-07. It is alleged that Baiden misrepresented $20 million in Nurse Connection's payroll to conceal the actual risk to the insurance carrier, thereby illegally reducing his workers' comp insurance premiums. State Fund's estimated loss over this seven-year period is approximately $1.4 million.
Based on the investigation, additional charges may be filed at a later date.
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1 comment:
Please spell "Western" correctly in your regional heading.
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