Ohio business owner sentenced in $425k workers’ comp scam

The owner of a payroll services firm pocketed his clients’ workers’ compensation premiums

Ohio business owner sentenced in $425k workers’ comp scam

Workers Comp

By Ryan Smith

An Ohio business owner is headed to federal prison for scamming the state’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) out of more than $425,000.

John R. Cacaro, 59, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $10,000. He must also serve one year of house arrest and three years of supervised release, according to the BWC.

Cacaro was the owner of the now-defunct Employers Choice Plus, a payroll services company. He was convicted in June after BWC and IRS investigators uncovered a scheme to short the BWC on insurance premiums he received from workers.

“John Cacaro made a conscious decision to keep over $425,000 in workers’ compensation premiums so he could live a lavish lifestyle that included the purchase of a second residence in Naples, Florida, and a motor home,” said IRS Special Agent in Charge Ryan L. Korner. “Now he is a convicted felon headed to prison.”

“Multiple businesses entrusted Mr. Cacaro with processing their payroll and remitting insurance premiums to our agency, and he broke that trust,” said Jim Wenecke, director of the BWC’s special investigations department.

At his sentencing, Cacaro submitted a cashier’s check for $425,247 in restitution to the BWC.

 

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