Ventura, CA – District Attorney Gregory D. Totten recently announced that defendant Michelle Cordero of Nocona, Texas, was sentenced to 60 days in the Ventura County jail for committing workers’ compensation insurance fraud in violation of Insurance Code section 1871.4(a)(1).
This case was the result of an investigation by the California Department of Insurance’s Valencia Fraud Division and the District Attorney’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Fraud Unit.
On July 1, 2015, Cordero filed a workers’ compensation claim for a shoulder injury she claimed occurred while moving a shelf at her employer, Community Memorial Hospital, in Ventura. In her report, Cordero denied that she had any prior injuries to her right shoulder and claimed to have only one doctor. Subsequent investigation revealed that not only had she been seeing multiple doctors, but also that she had reported that she had just injured her right shoulder while moving boxes at her residence.
Cordero then filed a second claim, alleging that she had contracted meningitis from a patient at Community Memorial Hospital. Cordero denied under oath that she had recently been in contact with anyone who had meningitis. However, the investigation revealed that her live-in boyfriend had recently been sick with meningitis and that she intentionally concealed this fact from the insurer.
In addition to the jail sentence Cordero was ordered to serve five years on supervised probation and to pay full restitution of $26,089.76 to Sedgwick Claims Management Services, Inc.
Source: Ventura County DA