California Trucking Firm Owners Charged in Alleged $450K Workers’ Comp Fraud
Trucking company owners Hardip Singh, 44, and Amandeep Kaur, 36, were charged this week with multiple counts of insurance fraud after allegedly misclassifying employees as independent contractors in a scheme to underreport payroll by more than $1.4 million, resulting in a $234,000 loss to their insurer and a $220,000 loss to the Employment Development Department.
Singh and Kaur were doing business as Trust Transport Inc., a long-haul trucking company based out of their residence in Sacramento and a separate trucking yard in West Sacramento. From Feb. 25, 2014 through Oct. 20, 2016, Trust Transport maintained workers’ compensation insurance coverage with State Compensation Insurance Fund and reported $105,811 in payroll.
SCIF conducted audits to confirm the payroll and found that several workers were issued 1099s and had been misclassified as independent contractors.
California Department of Insurance detectives served a search warrant at Trust Transport’s bank for financial records and discovered roughly $1.4 million in unreported payroll from the misclassified “independent contractors.” The investigation reportedly revealed Singh and Kaur fraudulently misclassified these employees in order to avoid paying higher workers’ comp insurance premiums.
SCIF reported a $234,541 loss in underpaid insurance premiums and EDD reported a $220,000 loss due to this scheme.
Both Singh and Kaur self-surrendered to the Sacramento County Superior Court. The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case.
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