The California Department of Insurance (CDI) arrested three suspects in a counterfeit  workers’ compensation insurance case that defrauded hundreds of victims in 19 states with losses of more than $700,000.

“Our California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) members who are investigators with the California Department of Insurance and the Employee Development Department (EDD) were committed to seeing this investigation through,” said CSLEA President Alan Barcelona.  “This was a four year investigation that was  started back in April 2009.”

The three suspects arrested include Robinson Yang, 44, Roland Yang, 43 and Sotheany “Teny” Hul, 42 all of Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County.  They were arrested on multiple counts of theft, fraud and forgery.  According to investigators, the three produced and sold hundreds of false certificates of insurance for workers’ compensation insurance. 

The investigation involved Optima Staffing and RJC Insurance Brokerage.  According to detectives, the suspects established three payroll service companies (Optima Staffing, United Employer Services  and  National Employer Services) as a cover to facilitate their scheme. 

In addition to all that, Optima allegedly evaded income and unemployment insurance taxes and Robinson Yang is accused of collecting unemployment benefits while on the payroll and collecting a check from the three payroll service companies.

“To those deceitful, greedy suspects it was all about money,” said Barcelona.  “But think about the victims, those injured on the job and the honest business owners who paid for workers’ comp insurance but were left unprotected.  Thankfully investigators put a stop to this scheme and arrested the suspects behind it.”

The three were arrested between March 22 and April 3, 2013.  A court date has been set for April 22, 2013.