Ohio business owners owe more than $800K following fraud-related convictions

Three Northeast Ohio men owe the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC) more than $800,000 after investigators discovered they were operating their businesses without workers’ compensation coverage. “These business owners learned the hard way they cannot operate their business without workers’ compensation coverage, and now they owe us hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said BWC …

Akron business owner convicted of manslaughter, workers’ comp fraud

Company has history of worker injuries, noncompliance with BWC The owner of an Akron construction company pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter July 24 after one of his workers fell to his death in late 2017. James D. Coon, the owner of James Coon Construction, also pleaded guilty in a Summit County courtroom to a fourth-degree …

Special investigations department finishes FY2018 with impressive results

By Jim Wernecke, Director, BWC Special Investigations Department It’s getting harder and harder for the criminally minded to rip off BWC and the State Insurance Fund and get away with it. That was the message I took to BWC’s board of directors Thursday afternoon when I presented the board with the Special Investigations Department’s annual …

Cincinnati man who claimed to be permanently and totally disabled worked two jobs

Bruce Wilcox of Cincinnati (Hamilton County) was sentenced Feb. 25 in a Franklin County courtroom after pleading guilty to working two jobs while he claimed a workplace injury left him permanently disabled. BWC’s Special Investigations Department (SID) identified a potential conflict after the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services reported Wilcox was earning wages …