Calif. State Fund to Collect $66,355 in Fraud Case

Superior Court Judge Christopher G. Wilson ordered the owner of three Humboldt County bars to pay State Compensation Insurance Fund $66,355.00 in restitution for defrauding the workers’ compensation insurance carrier.

Salvatore Constanzo, of Eureka, was ordered to pay the amount to State Fund after his conviction for workers’ compensation insurance fraud for underreporting payroll, misclassifying and failing to report wages, which were paid in cash.

State Fund, which insured Sidelines Sports, Sal’s OFF Broadway, and Myrtlewood Lounge since 1992, uncovered the fraud during a claims review, which resulted in a thorough investigation of Constanzo’s policy. State Fund assisted the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Insurance resulting in Constanzo’s conviction.

State Fund’s Fraud Investigation Program (FIP) addresses all aspects of workers’ compensation insurance fraud, including employee, employer, medical, legal and internal. In the last decade, State Fund’s FIP has produced hundreds of arrests and convictions in a wide range of workers’ compensation cases, including some considered milestones in California’s fight against fraud.