MAF Enforcement Committee

DIF Forms Task Force with the Broward

2011-10-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

DIF Forms Task Force with the Broward
Sheriff's Office to focus on MSB 's
By Geoff Branch
　
You may have noticed a theme in this issue regarding the Department of Financial Services' focus on combating the rampant workers' com pensation premium fraud being facilitated by some Money Service Businesses across the state. This crime has been identified as the largest threat to the workers' compensation market in Florida, as it results in claims for which premium never was, and never will be, collected.
To that end, in early August the Division entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Broward Sheriff's Office to assign to the Division a full-time detective to be paired with a DIF detective, un der the supervision of a DIF Supervisor, to focus on specific Money Service Businesses in Broward County that have been identified as participating in these types of schemes. Investigations are already under way and will soon generate significant enforcement activities.
Utilizing the technical, legal, and investigative resources of a large law enforcement agency like the Broward Sheriff's Office to focus on Division initiatives allows for better, more thorough, and ultimately more successful investigations.
The relationship formed between the agencies will be a huge benefit as we move forward in the battle against Money Service Business fa cilitated Workers' Compensation Premium Fraud.
The Division of Insurance Fraud extends a big "Thank You" to Bro
ward County Sheriff Al Lamberti for his support of this project.
Editors Note
The Workers' Comp Insider Newsletter is now available quarterly
online at www.MyFloridaCFO.com/fraud. You can find each new is sue posted at our website just before the end of each quarter (March, June, September, December). Previous issues are also avail able. If you prefer to receive this publication via e-mail or have com ments you wish to share, contact Geoff Branch at:
Geoffrey.Branch®MyFloridaCFO.com.
"The relationship formed be
tween the agencies will be a huge benefit as we move for ward in the battle against Money Service Business facili tated Workers' Compensation Premium Fraud."
Summer 2011 Page 5

Worker's Compensation Premium Fraud: How It Works

2011-08-09T08:36:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow Floridians:

At the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, I announced the creation of a working group to review the practices of certain bad actors in the check cashing services industry who are aiding in workers’ compensation premium fraud. This kind of fraud puts pressure on rates and is crippling those in the business community who play by the rules. These highly organized schemes are diverting more than a billion dollars from Florida’s economy.

This latest workers’ compensation premium scheme is orchestrated by individuals who know the construction and subcontracting industry and are intent on evading payment of workers’ compensation premiums. Florida law generally requires every employee in the construction industry to be covered by workers’ compensation insurance. The effect of this scheme is that workers are left unprotected and honest employers suffer from an uneven playing field because they are consistently outbid on construction projects by those who skirt premium requirements.

We are committed to dismantling this scheme and putting these cheats behind bars. I am looking forward to working with my Division of Insurance Fraud as well as the Office of Financial Regulation, the Attorney General’s Office, and the construction and money services industries to develop solutions for combating this growing crime trend. Bringing together stakeholders will take us one step closer to the solutions we need to expedite jail time for these con artists.

Sincerely,

Jeff Atwater
Chief Financial Officer
State of Florida

Read more here: http://www.myfloridacfo.com/pressoffice/newsletter/

Illegal Construction labor -- Jacksonville, FL - WAWS Fox 29 Reporting

2011-05-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Robert Carlton and his enforcement committee have been participating with ICE in the Jacksonville area to crack down on illegal labor in construction. Ed Howley and Justin Lord are also on the enforcement committee.

Below is a link to a new story about cracking down on this major problem that was aired on FOX NEWS 30 in the Jax market. Congratulations Robert. I would not think this is a good piece for Lennar homes!

Check out the video coverage below:
http://bit.ly/m64ZkG

Law & Disorder: 2 Jacksonville men arrested in illegal construction fraud case

2011-04-15T06:39:00.000-07:00

Undercover surveillance of illegal immigrants working at home construction sites in Duval and St. Johns counties led to Saturday's arrests of two men on charges their company, HMC and Associates Construction Group LLC, filed false paperwork and laundered workers' pay. Moises M. Torres and Raul Hernandez-Rodriquez, both of Jacksonville, are in the Duval County jail on $300,000 and $200,000 bail, respectively. The investigation has been under way since 2007 by a task force of police, immigration and state financial investigators. It concentrated on subcontractors who avoid paying workers compensation premiums by setting up fake companies that file false insurance coverage certificates. That reduces the cost of a project and makes them more popular when a contractor is bidding for services, according to the arrest report. Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-04-12/story/law-disorder-2-jacksonville-men-arrested-illegal-alien-construction#ixzz1JbCP9Xgq

Feb. 11, 2011 - Kiplnger

2011-02-16T06:49:00.001-08:00

Coming: More audits of employers’ 1-9 eligibility forms for foreign workers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will step up the number of routine checkups it makes to ensure that employers are toeing the line when hiring immigrants. Last year, ICE levied fines totaling nearly $7 million for violations auditors found... some solely for paperwork mess-ups, with no undocumented workers discovered.
Self-audits can save employers’ necks. ICE gives just three days’ notice to employers before an inspection, so staying on top of paperwork is critical. Also...
Problems with immigration red tape could spark other regulatory checks, compounding employers’ woes. The feds figure that an employer that’s careless about compliance in one legal arena is likely to fall short in other areas as well. So employers could wind up with a battalion of federal regulators on their case.

Feb. 11, 2011 Knight Kiplinger, THE KIPLINGER WASHINGTON EDITORS

Police on the hunt for unlicensed contractors

2010-09-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

By Jessica Vander Velde, Times Staff Writer

Both Tampa police and the Sheriff's Office are cracking down on unlicensed work.
TAMPA - When the workers arrived one by one at a Tampa apartment last month, the man who answered the door asked if they could install some ceiling fans and change a water heater. He had found their ads on Craigslist and said he wanted bids.

A surveillance camera captured their conversations as armed police officers stood nearby, handcuffs at the ready. The man was really an undercover detective, and the workers were about to be hit with $5,000 fines and charges of contracting without a license.

Tampa police have set up occasional stings to catch unlicensed contractors since 2008, but with a new detective at the helm of the three-man unit, they're planning more - perhaps up to one a week, said investigator Bill Darrow.

"People want it, and we have a lot of victims," Darrow said.

In last month's sting, police arrested seven men. Last week, they sent a Dunedin worker to jail on charges of grand theft and contracting without a license. Police say Richard L. Goodwin, 56, swindled a South Tampa couple out of almost $10,000.

Construction fraud is a major problem with potentially dire consequences, said Tampa police Detective Wayne Robinson, who joined the unit in June.

Victims are sometimes cheated out of tens of thousands of dollars for work that's promised but never done. And it's dangerous to hire people who have little or no training, Robinson said.

"You could have a fire if there's a bad electrical job," Robinson said. "That's obviously why these people have to be licensed. You have to pass minimum standards and there can be recourse."

Tampa's three construction fraud investigators work on tips they get from the state's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, the city's construction services division and ads they come across.

In unincorporated Hillsborough County, the Sheriff's Office's white-collar crime unit investigates this type of fraud, along with the county's building services division.

County code investigator Roberto Bustamante said they get about a half-dozen calls each week.

"It's a big problem that we see increasing," Bustamante said.

They've been seeing more workers who are employed by licensed contractors go out on their own on nights and weekends to make some extra money. That's illegal, he said.

Darrow estimates the city hears of only 5 to 10 percent of all the potential construction fraud. Most of the time, victims think there's nothing they can do or they're told to get an attorney because it's a civil matter, Robinson said.

It's only a civil matter when the argument is about the quality of the job, such as accusations that tiles aren't straight or a paint job is shoddy, he said.

Contracting without a license is a misdemeanor the first time and a felony the second time.

Last week, when Tampa plumber Joseph Gonzalez, 39, heard about the South Tampa couple police say Goodwin victimized, Gonzalez offered to do their plumbing work at cost.

It's not the first time the third-generation plumber has cleaned up after suspected scammers.

A couple of years ago, he helped a woman fix her bathroom.

The previous worker was unlicensed and left a mess of improperly installed plumbing and exposed electrical wires, Gonzalez said.

It's dangerous, he said, to employ untrained people. Plumbing could be contaminated with sewage, improperly installed water heaters could scald someone and bad electrical work could cause a fire, he said.

On top of that, if they're not doing the work they've been paid for, it's theft, he said.

"They're literally stealing money, without a mask and without a gun," he said. "And they need to be stopped."

Jessica Vander Velde can be reached at jvandervelde@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3433.

LINK TO ARTICLE:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa-area-police-on-the-hunt-for-unlicensed-contractors/1119892

The Magic number

2010-06-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

Certain Laws Only Apply to Businesses With a Certain Number of Employees

Some laws apply only when your company has a certain number of employees. (Scroll down for a helpful chart.) We have seen businesses comply with laws when they did not have to (at great expense), and we have seen businesses fail to comply with laws when they were required to (at even greater expense).
“Magic Number” Example Number 1: Safety Records
For example, one subcontractor feared it was ineligible for a large job that it had bid on, after the GC informed the sub that it had failed to submit certain forms that the GC required. The GC wanted OSHA 300-A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses forms for the past three years. However, the sub had not kept those forms, because the sub (mistakenly) believed that only employers with 25 or more employees were required to maintain those forms. Actually, OSHA regulations require employers with 11 or more employees to keep the 300-A Summary forms (unless some exemption applies, which would be unusual for construction-related businesses). This story happens to have a happy ending – turns out that the sub only had eight employees during the prior three years, so the sub still qualified for the job and avoided penalties under OSHA. But because the sub believed the threshold was higher and had no plans to maintain the 300-A Summary forms until it hired 25 employees, this could have ended differently.
“Magic Number” Example Number 2: Time Off
We have also seen voluntary compliance with the federal Family Medical Leave Act (the “FMLA”). In very short summary, this law requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave during a one-year period for eligible employees. Among other things, this law generally requires that employers: reinstate eligible employees to the same or an equivalent position when they return to work; maintain benefits in a specific way during the leave; and give specific notices to employees. For those employers who are subject to the FMLA, there are penalties for failure to comply. (To be eligible, among other things, employees must have worked for the employer for one year, must have worked 1,250 hours during the year before the leave begins, and must work at a location within 75 miles of a site where the employer employs at least 50 people.)
If a business does not employ 50 people, the business does not have to offer the leave required by the FMLA. Smaller businesses have the flexibility to craft a customized leave policy that treats employees with dignity and flexibility in the event of an emergency or family issue, but that balances the company’s absenteeism policy, the limited resources of the small business, and the right to permanently fill the employee’s position. Smaller businesses may create policies, for example, for parental leave, personal leave, or bereavement leave. Also, smaller businesses can choose to offer leave that mirrors the FMLA without actually referring to the FMLA itself. In fact, courts have held that employers may be responsible for complying with the FMLA, even if the employer has fewer than 50 employees, where the employer specifically referenced the “FMLA” in documents provided to employees.
So what is the “magic number”? You should not have to guess. Below is a list of some laws that may apply depending upon the number of employees a company has:
Number of Employees
Applicable Law and General Description
All Employers
Fair Labor Standards Act (federal): Requires employers to pay overtime rates to non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours in a work week.
All Employers
National Labor Relations Act (federal): Prohibits interference with unionization and activity to improve working conditions.
All Employers
Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (federal): Protects service members’ rights, including those called up from the reserves or National Guard.
10 or more
Florida Private Whistleblower Act (Florida Statute Sections 448.101-448.105): generally, prohibits retaliation against employees who disclose an employer’s violations of the law to a governmental agency (after giving the employer written notice and an opportunity to correct the practice), participate in an investigation of the employer’s alleged violation of the law, or refuse to participate in any activity that is in violation of the law.
11 or more
Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordkeeping regulations (federal): Requires recordkeeping for injuries and illnesses, unless an exemption applies. Note that all employers covered by OSHA (not just those with 11 or more employees) must report to OSHA any workplace incident resulting in a fatality or the in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees within 8 hours.
15 or more
Americans with Disabilities Act (federal): Prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.
15 or more
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (federal): prohibits discrimination against people on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex; and prohibits retaliation after a complaint is made.
15 or more
Pregnancy Discrimination Act (federal): prohibits discrimination against women because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth.
15 or more
Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992 (state): prohibits discrimination against people based upon race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, or marital status.
Fewer than 20
Florida Health Insurance Coverage Continuation Act (state “mini-COBRA”): generally requires that a group health plan issued to a small employer must provide that each qualified beneficiary who would lose coverage under the group health plan because of a qualifying event is entitled, without evidence of insurability, to elect, within the election period provided by law, continuation coverage under the employer’s group health plan.
20 or more
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) (federal): generally requires that group health plans sponsored by employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year offer employees and their families the opportunity for a temporary extension of health coverage in certain instances where coverage under the plan would otherwise end.
20 or more
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (federal): prohibits discrimination based upon age against people who are 40 years old or older.
50 or more
Family Medical Leave Act (federal). See above.
50 or more
Florida’s Domestic Violence Leave Law (Florida Statute Section 741.313) (state): requires an employer to permit an employee to take up to three working days of leave in any 12-month period if the employee or a family or household member of an employee is the victim of domestic violence or sexual violence.
A few more things to know:
We encourage all businesses, regardless of the number of employees, to comply with all laws, regulations, and ordinances prohibiting discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and hostile work environments, and that promote the safety, health, welfare, and dignity of all employees and applicants.
This list is not exhaustive. Other employment laws may apply to your business.
Some businesses are exempt from certain requirements, regardless of size. For example, certain low-hazard types of businesses do not have to comply with certain OSHA recordkeeping requirements.
The “magic number” for the application of each law is subject to change.
The relevant period during which the required number of employees must have been employed differs among the laws.
Courts may add together the numbers of employees from two separate companies, where the court determines that the companies are not truly separate, or where the court finds a “joint employment relationship.” Courts may also add people who you claim are independent contractors, if they are not truly independent contractors.
Eliminate the guesswork. As your business expands and contracts, keep track of the number of employees. If you are close to a threshold “magic number,” ask for help with compliance – before you need a magician.
The West Palm Beach law firm of Bruce Loren & Associates specializes in the representation of businesses and management in the construction industry. Cara F. Barrick, Esq. focuses her practice on employment issues that are unique to the construction industry.

Bruce E. Loren & Associates2000 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., Suite 501West Palm Beach, FL 33409Telephone: 561-615-5701Fax: 561-615-5708Web: www.lorenlawfirm.com Click Here for Directions

West Palm Beach Contractors Plead Guilty to Hiring Illegal Workers, Tax Fraud

2010-06-24T16:39:00.001-07:00

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida issued the following news release:
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Daniel W. Auer, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, announced today that John M. David and Juan A. Gonzalez have pled guilty to conspiracy charges related to their participation in a scheme to employ illegal aliens and thereby avoid the payment of employment taxes and workers' compensation premiums for these workers.
The charges involve Sun Deck Concrete, Inc. ("Sun Deck"), a Florida corporation located in Palm Beach County, which provides concrete services to residential and commercial contractors. John M. David is the President of Sun Deck and Juan A. Gonzalez was a supervisor at the business.
According to court documents, in the early 2000s, Sun Deck's business began to grow and the company needed to hire additional laborers. To meet this need and to remain profitable, Sun Deck turned to undocumented workers, many of whom were Honduran and Mexican nationals who were living in the United States illegally. In order to conceal the fact that Sun Deck was hiring and paying illegal aliens, John David and Juan A. Gonzalez devised a scheme to pay these workers through a series of shell companies.

Continued...
www.forconstructionpros.com/online/article.jsp?siteSection=42&id=16600

Report unsafe conditions

2010-04-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

Be part of the masonry enforcement momentum!

Use the links on the right side of the page to protect our industry

Article 'Feds Vow Crackdown on Misclasified Staff'

2010-03-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

The March 1st issue of ENR Engineering News-Record has an article which says how the Obama administration has tasked the Dept.; of Labor and the IRS with increasing enforcements this year and is calling for additional resources in the 2011 Federal budget. Last year, the Dept. of Labor added 250 new investigators hired within its Wage & Hour Division. The IRS BUDGET, signed by the President in December, strongly urges the IRS to increase enforcement “in industries where misclassification of employees is widespread.”

The proposed 2011 budget calls for additional resources for enforcement, including $12 million to hire 90 additional enforcement staffers at the Dept. of Labor. The Obama administration’s budget estimates these efforts could yield $7 Billion in additional Treasury receipts in 10 years.
The 2009 budget - $17 million – to hire an additional 75 employees.
The 2010 budget - $32 million – to hire an additional 288 employees.
A proposed additional 2010 budget – to hire an additional 100 more employees.

It is estimated that up to 30% of firms misclassify employees as independent contractors.
Between 1996 and 2004, an estimated $34.7 billion of federal tax revenues went uncollected due to worker misclassification, according to a Coopers & Lybrand Study.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

2010-02-18T15:56:00.000-08:00

What is ICE?
Protecting national security by enforcing our nation's customs and immigration laws
Report suspicious activity

1-866-DHS-2-ICE
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Office of Investigations A division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Office of Investigations
The Office of Investigations has 26 Special Agent in Charge (SAC) principal field offices throughout the United States. The SAC offices are responsible for the administration and management of all investigative and enforcement activities within the geographic boundaries of the office. The SACs develop, coordinate, and implement enforcement strategies to ensure conformance with national policies and procedures and to support national intelligence programs. SACs coordinate law enforcement activities with the highest level of Federal, state, and local governments, as well as intelligence organizations and international law enforcement entities. In addition, SACs supervise all administrative responsibilities assigned to the office and ensure a responsive Internal Controls Program is developed.
To efficiently manage their designated geographic regions, SAC offices maintain various subordinate field offices throughout their areas of responsibility, which support the enforcement mission. These subordinate field offices, Deputy Special Agents in Charge (DSAC), Assistant Special Agents in Charge (ASAC), Resident Agents in Charge (RAC) and Resident Agents (RA), are responsible for managing enforcement activities within the geographic boundaries of the office.

OSHA Contact information

2010-01-15T13:28:00.001-08:00

To report an emergency, fatality, or imminent life threatening situation please contact our toll free number immediately:
1-800-321-OSHA (6742)

To report OSHA violations via phone:

Tampa Area Office
5807 Breckenridge Parkway, Suite A
Tampa, FL 33610-4249
813- 626-1177

Jacksonville Area Office
1851 Executive Center Dr.
Jacksonville, FL 32207
904-232-2895

Fort Lauderdale Area Office
8040 Peters Road, Building H-100
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33324
954-424-0242