Man Admits to Not Having Comp for Company He Ran While Claiming Disability

Thursday, August 17, 2017 | 0

A New York man on Wednesday admitted that he did not have workers’ compensation coverage for those he employed at a company he operated while collecting workers’ compensation benefits himself, according to a report by Syracuse.com.

The New York Inspector General’s Office said David C. Sigl, 54, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud, grand larceny and offering a false instrument, all felonies. He also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for running a business without workers’ compensation coverage.

The inspector general said Sigl received more than $83,000 in workers’ compensation benefits for a 2013 injury he sustained while working as a heavy equipment operator for a Syracuse construction company. But while Sigl claimed he was entitled to benefits because he was too injured to work, prosecutors said he made more than $150,000 running his own company called Lake Country Logging.

“This defendant claimed total disability but ultimately admitted to climbing in and out of a large, articulated log-skidder tractor, climbing up and down trees and wielding chainsaws,” Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Bundelmann said in a statement.

At the same time, the inspector general said Sigl did not have work comp coverage for the two workers he employed at Lake Country Logging.

Sigl is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 14 in Cayuga County Court.