A former field auditor for
Brickstreet Insurance will spend six years in federal prison for cheating the
workers’ compensation insurance company out of more than $7 million.
Arville Sargent, 52, of
Chapmanville, was sentenced for fraud in U.S. District Court on Friday.
In March, he plead guilty to taking
bribes from four coal contracting companies, between January 2006 and at least
February 2011, and allowing the companies to underreport the number of people
they employed.
Federal prosecutors said the bribes
added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars and included other items, like an
all terrain vehicle.
As a result of Sargent’s actions,
Aracoma Contracting, Christian Contracting, Newhall Contracting and T&W
Services saved millions of dollars in insurance premiums that should have been
paid to Brickstreet to cover their workers if they were injured on the job.
“Employers in the coal mining
industry who cheat the workers’ compensation insurance system are really only
cheating the hard working miners who risk injury to perform dangerous jobs to
provide for their families,” said U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin when charges were
first filed against Sargent in February.
Sargent is the fifth person to be
sentenced for a role in the scheme.
