Will Devon Lynn Kile Be Trading Her Pradas For Prison Garb?

It is fair to say that an experienced Riverside workers compensation lawyer has pretty much seen it all when it comes to workers comp fraud, but even the adventures of Devon Lynn Kile, the Real Housewives of Orange County wannabe would astound even the toughest of attorneys.

Devon is the wife of Michael Vincent Petronella who between them owned a very successful series of building contract businesses known as 'Western CleanOff Inc', 'Petronella Corporation' and 'Petronella Roofing' (also known as 'The Reroofing Specialists Inc' ). They had offices based in Cathedral City and Costa Mesa and their client list included established names like the 'Ocean Institute' in Dana Point and the 'Pacific Amphitheatre' in Costa Mesa as well as a whole host of other commercial properties.

Back in March of 2006, one of the company's employees 'supposedly' fell of a roof that he was working on at the time and a claim was submitted for compensation. As it happened around that same time, a payroll stub of the same employee 'conveniently' found its way to the State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF). After running some checks they found that the company named in the workers comp document was none other than Western CleanOff Inc, who of course was owned by Petronella and his wife. They also found rather alarmingly that the company was not insured under any insurance carrier. The suspected fraudulent claim was then reported to the Department Of Insurance (DOI) and the Orange County District Attorney's Office. After being closely watched for a period of two years the DOI and the OCDA uncovered that between the years of 2000 and 2008 the company had fraudulently submitted 42 separate claims for workers compensation for injured workers. On top of this the company also under reported to the tune of around $29 million to the SCIF to avoid paying workers compensation premiums. As a result the SCIF had incurred losses of more than $250,000 in non-existent workers comp claims and also losses on insurance premiums that ran into the millions. At one stage the company bosses reported a payroll of $3 million to the SCIF when in fact they had a payroll of ten times that amount at over $32 million.

If this wasn't enough to make a Riverside workers compensation lawyer's jaw drop to the floor then when they were eventually arrested at their home in Laguna Hills in April of 2009, it was found that the couple owned a staggering five properties in the States of California and Texas. They also owned luxury vehicles to the tune of a Bentley, two top of the range Ferrari's and a Range Rover. They also spent more than $2 million dollars on personal items between the years of 2005 -2007, which was amassed on credit cards. On top of this the couple's wardrobe's looked like a who's who of fashion with items by Balenciaga, Christian Louboutin, Gucci, Jimmy Choo and Yves St Laurent amongst others. As if this wasn't enough, a search of two of their properties and a business location threw up $51,000 in loose cash, $500,000 in jewellery and rather strangely an application for Devon Lynn Kile to appear on the Bravo Network TV reality show 'The Real Housewives Of Orange County'.

It is clear from this that the couple has made an absolute fortune out of workers compensation fraud in fact, somewhere to the tune of $30 million and as a result at the end of last year after spending more than 2 years in prison, Kile was sentenced to a 10 year further probation after pleading guilty to 36 felony counts. Her husband on the other hand still has 8 years of his prison sentence to serve.

Although workers comp is there to protect employers and help employees it is very apparent that it is open to fraud. This being the case an employee has the right to seek the services of a group of skilled Riverside workers compensation attorneys should they feel that they have had a perfectly legitimate claim denied. The right attorney will leave no stone unturned to make sure that the individual gets the full and fair claim that they deserve.