Placentia Man Faces Fraud Scheme Charge

Prosecutors have filed felony charges against a Placentia resident and two others, alleging that they committed insurance fraud by submitting false statements to obtain lower workers compensation insurance rates.

In a criminal complaint filed this week, the Orange County district attorney’s office charged John Lee Wilson, 45, of Placentia, Eugene F. Wilson, 46, of Salt Lake City and Rhonda Lee Schneider, 39, of Corona, with conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and grand theft.

If convicted on all charges, they each could face five years’ imprisonment and $50,000 in fines, or twice the amount of loss incurred in the alleged crime, whichever is greater, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors charged that from January 1991 to October 1994, the defendants operated Stonegate Roofing, a business located in Orange and Riverside counties, and submitted false documents to the State Compensation Insurance Fund to avoid payment of required premiums on their workers compensation insurance policy. An audit shows state losses resulting from the alleged fraud exceed $1 million, prosecutors said.