His Crime Doesn’t Compute

Following a 17-month investigation, Evangelos Tsorakis of Elk Grove, Calif., was arrested at his residence yesterday on four felony counts of insurance fraud and one felony count of perjury. The 47-year-old man was booked into the Sacramento County Jail and bail was set at $15,000.

If convicted, he could face up to five years in state prison and/or a maximum fine of $50,000. According to investigators with the California Department of Insurance Criminal Investigations Bureau, in July 3, 1996, Tsorakis claimed that he injured his back while employed at Apple Computer Inc.

He filed a workers’ comp benefits claim with Liberty Mutual Insurance Company stating that he was pushing boxes of computers down an assembly line when he felt a stinging pain down his right leg and lower back. In both a sworn deposition and consultation with a physician, Tsorakis said that he had not suffered any previous injuries or received any treatment for any injuries to his back—specifically his lumbar spine.

An investigation uncovered the fact that Tsorakis had an MRI scan of the lumbar spine in June of 1996—just three weeks before his alleged injury. The scan revealed the existence of a herniated disc and nerve root compression. As a result of his fraudulent claim, Liberty Mutual paid Tsorakis $76,231 in workers’ comp benefits to which he was not entitled.