State Compensation Insurance Fund will collect $135,000 inrestitution from a San Diego County-based construction firm as partof the sentence in a workers' compensation insurance fraud case.Ray Charles Gauthier, owner of Gauthier Construction, was orderedto pay restitution following his conviction on felony workers'compensation and unemployment insurance fraud. In addition,Gauthier was sentenced to three years probation and must payapproximately $60,000 to the State Employment DevelopmentDepartment and $102,000 to the State Franchise Tax Board.

State Fund audits revealed that Gauthier had falsifiedinformation to avoid paying proper workers' compensation premiums.It was discovered that he had been engaged in a cash-pay schemewith a subcontractor, in which he would pay the subcontractor apercentage of the payroll so that the subcontractor could use thatmoney to pay Gauthier employee's cash wages. The cash pay toemployees was not reported to State Fund.