Window cleaning business pays restitution

LOS ANGELES - The owner of a window cleaning company who earlier pleaded to workers' compensation fraud and failure to pay taxes was ordered last week to pay $321,350 in restitution.Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Clifford Klein sentenced Emmett Timothy Kennedy III, the president of WWC Window Cleaning, who pleaded no contest on March 8 to three felony counts. The 48-year-old Kennedy paid the full restitution amount with cashier's checks, said Deputy District Attorney John Morris, head deputy of the Healthcare Fraud Division. The case arose when one of Kennedy's workers informed the Maintenance Cooperation Trust Fund, a support group for custodial workers, that the company was paying its workers in cash and refused to provide the workers paychecks with normal deductions for disability, Social Security and payroll taxes. The Employment Development Department investigated the allegations. Prosecutors charged Kennedy in May 2011, with 51 counts of workers' compensation fraud and failure to pay payroll taxes. The remaining 48 counts were dismissed.

********** Published: September 13, 2012 - Volume 11 - Issue 22