Business Owner Ordered to Pay $898,000 for Payroll Fraud

Monday, August 12, 2013 | 0

Editor’s Note: The Orange County Superior Court on Nov. 17, 2016, granted an expungement petition filed by Hardas. The expungement order directs that “the plea, verdict or finding of guilt in the above-entitled action be set aside and vacated and a plea of not guilty be entered, and that the accusatory filing is dismissed. As a result, Hardas has no criminal record as a result of this matter.

The president of a cleaning company was ordered to pay the California State Compensation Insurance Fund $898,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to underreporting his payroll by more than $8 million, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.

Loksarang Dinkar Hardas, 53, of Buena Park, on Thursday pleaded guilty to six felony counts of misrepresenting facts to State Fund and three felony counts of misrepresenting facts to a workers’ compensation carrier. He was sentenced to five years in state prison, stayed pending completion of 10 years of formal probation, payment of a $250,000 fine and restitution.

The sentence was enhanced for an aggravated white collar crime, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Hardas was president of Awesome Products, a manufacturing and distribution company for household and commercial cleaning products.

In 2001, he purchased a policy from State Fund, but did not report that he leased the majority of his workers from three staffing companies. On July 10, 2008, he insured his labor-leasing companies with The Hartford, but did not report his State Fund policy.

From July 10, 2008, to Dec. 2, 2010, Hardas underreported more than $8 million in payroll to both The Hartford and State Fund, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Source: Orange County District Attorney’s Office