The owner-operator of a fish farm in Chenango County, N.Y., reeled in $66,100 in fraudulent workers' compensation benefits from the New York State Insurance Fund before being caught.
Edward Panus, 59, of Afton, N.Y., claimed the benefits in a long-running scheme, investigators allege. He submitted signed attestations to a state agency that he had not worked or had any income following a job-related back injury in 1988. However, a six-month investigation by the New York State Insurance Department (NYSID) Frauds Bureau and the New York State Police revealed Panus had been self-employed since 1996 as the owner of Ponderosa Fish Farm.
Panus is now charged with 13 counts of offering a false instrument for filing and one count of committing a fraudulent practice under the Worker's Compensation Law, all felonies. Arrested by state police in February, he faces up to a maximum of four years in state prison for each charge.
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