The California Department of Insurance (“DOI”) has charged Alvin Shin Chen and Fiona Xilin Chen with workers' compensation insurance premium fraud for allegedly cheating their workers' compensation insurer.
According to the DOI, the Chens, owners of Metro Worldwide, Inc., and Pacific Coast Distribution, operate a trucking company in Long Beach and attempted to reduce their workers' compensation premiums by providing fraudulent information to their insurer regarding the number of their employees and what work those employees performed.
The DOI said that its detectives uncovered evidence indicating that the Chens paid cash to employee truck drivers to avoid reporting them to the insurer and reduce their payroll tax obligation.
According to the DOI, audits of the Chens' records found they underreported their payroll by more than $4.7 million. As a result, the Chens allegedly cheated their insurer out of more than $1.6 million in workers' compensation premium.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].