An arrest warrant filed in state Superior Court in Middletown, Conn., shows Luis Pomaquiza, owner of LA Roofing LLC, Middletown, was charged with workers’ compensation insurance fraud after misclassifying workers to lower his company’s insurance costs, according to CT Insider. The company is not an NRCA member.
In October 2023, investigators from the Office of the State’s Attorney for the State of Connecticut discovered LA Roofing had removed wages for certain employees from its insurance reports, according to the warrant. LA Roofing had a workers’ compensation policy with a yearly premium of $1,340 based on reported wages for job classifications of “salespersons or collectors” and “clerical office employees.” The warrant states no roofing worker wages were included in the reports despite the company’s business including “roof replacement/repair work.”
The investigators found LA Roofing had reported tens of thousands of dollars in wages for roofing employees in the past but stopped doing so after a policy it held was canceled in June 2021 because of nonpayment of a premium. LA Roofing obtained a new policy in July 2021 but stopped reporting wages for roofing employees, which the warrant says led to the company paying a “drastically reduced yearly premium” for workers’ compensation insurance policies.
Videos on LA Roofing’s YouTube and TikTok accounts showed Pomaquiza and other workers performing roof replacement work. Pomaquiza told the inspector LA Roofing used subcontractors instead of employing roofing workers but declined to provide subcontractor names.
The inspector and other investigators visited two job sites to determine whether the roofing workers were LA Roofing employees. Investigators spoke to eight people at one site; all of those workers said they worked for LA Roofing, with seven saying they were paid in cash.
On Oct. 19, 2023, LA Roofing was issued a stop-work order for “misrepresenting employees as independent contractors” and “materially misrepresenting or concealing employee duties so as to avoid proper classification for calculations.” Soon after, investigators received a statement identifying a home improvement company owned by Pomaquiza’s brother as a subcontractor for LA Roofing, but the company’s workers’ compensation policy showed no active employees.
The Department of Labor assessed $60,600 in penalties against LA Roofing for violations that included misclassifying employees as independent contractors and failing to meet workers’ compensation coverage requirements. The amount later was reduced to $25,000, which the company paid in full in January 2024.
In August 2024, investigators visited an LA Roofing job site and found three workers were LA Roofing employees. The company was cited for employee misclassification again and paid a $3,600 penalty. The warrant says LA Roofing's workers’ compensation policy then was updated to reflect employee wages for roofing workers and other workers, increasing its annual premium from $1,340 to $12,401.
Investigators said Pomaquiza was aiming to pay a lower worker’s compensation premium when he “knowingly provided false, incomplete or misleading information” about the number of employees working for his company from Oct. 19, 2023, through Aug. 15, 2024.
Pomaquiza was arrested Oct. 15 and released on a $10,000 bond. He has a Dec. 2 plea hearing scheduled.
