Ag Company Owner, Daughter to Serve Six Years for $2.5M Fraud Scheme

The owner of a Merced agricultural company, and his daughter, will both serve six years in custody after they pleaded no contest to six felony counts of insurance fraud each in what the California Department of Insurance called a $2.5 million scheme. Felipe S. Barocio, 63, is the owner of Agriculture Services Inc. His daughter, Angelita Barocio-Negrete, worked for the company as the office manager. The Department of Insurance said the father and daughter underreported employee payroll by $11 million between 2015 and 2019 to reduce their cost of workers’ compensation coverage. &ld...