Countywide : Fraud Unit Reaches Fund-Raising Goal

A fund set up to collect money from private businesses for the prosecution of workers’ compensation fraud has reached the $150,000 goal set by the district attorney’s office, an official said Wednesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John L. Geb said that within the next couple of weeks, his office will ask the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for permission to assign an attorney and an investigator to a special unit to prosecute workers’ compensation fraud. The unit could be in operation within 30 days of receiving approval, Geb said.

The $150,000, coupled with a $68,000 grant from the state Department of Insurance, will fund the unit for a year, Geb said. Additional contributions from private businesses will be needed to keep the unit operating beyond that, he said.

The fund, established by the district attorney’s office in January, is the first in the state aimed at obtaining private money for criminal prosecutions. To address concerns that such a fund would encourage prosecutors to show favoritism toward contributors, the district attorney’s office will not be told the source of the donations, officials said.

Geb said he does not know how many businesses contributed toward the $150,000 goal.

The unit will focus on the major sources of workers’ comp fraud, such as doctors who falsely bill the system and attorneys who assist in the deceit.

“It’s a relatively small percent of attorneys and doctors (involved in fraud), yet that’s the area that costs the system the most,” Geb said.

The prosecutor added that he has no reason to believe that this kind of fraud is more common in Ventura County than other parts of the state. However, throughout California, workers’ compensation payments account for most companies’ third-highest expense, after salaries and materials, Geb said.