"When bad actors scheme to avoid required workers' compensation coverage, they put their employees and customers in danger," Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said in a release. "Fraud like this also drives-up insurance rates for honest contractors in our state that choose to play by the rules." Credit: chee siong teh/Adobe Stock
The owner of a Miami-area construction company was arrested for workers' compensation premium fraud, application fraud and "organized scheme to defraud" for allegedly underreporting payroll to avoid having to pay a higher premium, according to the Florida Department of Financial Services.
In 2018, Hector Gutierrez-Morales, owner of HG & AKE Construction Corp., took out a workers' comp policy with Traveler Property Casualty of America based on an estimated payroll of $161,000. Based on that information, a policy was issued with an estimated annual premium of around $28,000, according to the financial services department.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Steve Hallo
Steve Hallo is managing editor of PropertyCasualty360.com. He can be reached at [email protected]
