Ex-Postal Worker Accused of False Disability Claim

A former postal employee pleaded not guilty Monday to defrauding the federal government of $400,000 after claiming for decades that he was disabled by a bad back while he was running his own pool and spa company, authorities said.

Paul Minor, 52, of Northridge, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on five counts stemming from allegedly false statements he made to collect federal worker’s compensation benefits for a back injury he sustained while working for the postal service in 1971, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Minor left the government in 1975, according to U.S. Atty. Alejandro Mayorkas, and continued to receive full disability payments for the alleged back injury even after he started A-1 California Spa Services.

The government began investigating Minor in September 1996 when a postal inspector noticed that Minor was wearing an A-1 California Spa Services shirt in his driver’s license photo during a routine review of federal workers’ disability files.

A grand jury indictment alleges that Minor received disability benefits while he was president of the spa company and that he failed to report activities involving the business, federal prosecutors said.

The case was set for trial April 13 before U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian. If convicted, Minor, who is free on $50,000 bail, faces a maximum sentence of 21 years in federal prison and possible fines of more than $1 million.