Owners, supervisors at Escondido landscaping company plead not guilty to insurance fraud charges [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

San Diego Union-Tribune (CA)

The co-owners of an Escondido landscaping company accused of underreporting payroll to their insurer pleaded not guilty to felony insurance fraud charges this week, according to court and state officials.

The three brothers who co-own Green View Landscape & Tree Service Inc. and two of their wives, who are listed as supervisors at the company, are accused of understating their employees' wages to an insurance company to save money on workers' compensation premiums, according to the California Department of Insurance.

The alleged offenses occurred between 2016 and 2021, according to the complaint filed by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office. An additional charge of insurance fraud was filed against two of the brothers for an alleged offense that occurred between 2014 and 2015.

Two of the defendants were each charged with six counts of insurance fraud and face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the complaint. The others were each charged with five counts of insurance fraud and face up to nine years in prison if convicted.

The defendants named in the complaint are: Antonio Martinez Resendiz, 36; Ismael Martinez Resendiz, 34; Jorge Martinez Resendiz, 32; Ariana Martinez, 34, and Silvia Reyna Martinez, 34. Their residences are listed as Murietta, Fallbrook and Temecula.

All five were arraigned Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court, said Tanya Sierra, a spokesperson for the District Attorney's Office. They pleaded not guilty and were released on their own recognizance.

Their next hearing is set for July 19.

Attorney Peter Liss, who represents Ariana Martinez, said the family was aware of the investigation for a "long time" and have cooperated with it.

"These are good people who run a solid company that employs many individuals, and they contribute a lot to this community," Liss said. "People should not rush to judgment and just wait to see how this unfolds in court."

Joni Eisenstein, an attorney who represents Antonio Martinez Resendiz, described the family as hardworking and said they had built their business together over the last two decades.

Attempts to identify and contact other attorneys in the case were unsuccessful.

California law requires businesses to maintain workers' compensation insurance to cover their employees in case of an on-the-job injury, the state insurance agency said in a news release Tuesday.

"To ensure proper coverage, employers are required to accurately report their employees' job classifications and the amount of payroll expended," state officials said. "One of the common ways in which employers avoid paying insurance premiums is to underreport employee payroll by providing false payroll reports to their insurance company."

Businesses that fraudulently lower their premiums can, in turn, lower their costs of labor, giving them an unfair advantage in the contract bidding process, the agency said.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.