Contractor Pays Restitution for Payroll, Comp Fraud

Monday, October 7, 2019 | 0

A Helena contractor has paid restitution after pleading guilty to payroll fraud and failing to obtain workers' compensation insurance.

Darren Booth, owner of DB Construction, “was paying his employees under the table,” said Montana Deputy Attorney General Jon Bennion, according to a local news report and the AG's news release.

“He wasn’t paying workers' compensation premiums or Social Security taxes," Bennion said. "A tip was provided, and we have investigators who go after workers' compensation fraud, so we conducted an investigation.”

The Montana State Fund, has a fraud unit, and the Attorney General's Office has a unit dedicated to prosecuting workers' compensation fraud. Investigators found that the fraud took place in 2014 and 2015, when Booth vastly underreported job classifications and the number of workers on his payroll, Bennion said.

Booth paid almost $10,400 in restitution to the State Fund, along with a $1,000 fine. He was sentenced to three years of probation.

CORRECTION: Montana State Fund is a state-chartered workers' compensation carrier. An earlier version of this report suggested otherwise.