Published: 2010-09-08 06:17:38
Author: Claims Journal | June 4, 2010
A Salinas, Calif., chiropractor. Robert Ray Schreiner, 57, has been charged with 16 felony counts, including conspiring to deny injured workers their workers' compensation benefits, filing fraudulent insurance claims and making false statements to an insurer, the California Department of Insurance reported. Schreiner surrendered to authorities on May 28.
According to the DOI, in October 2006, two Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. employees contacted the Monterey County District Attorney's office to complain that workers were being discouraged from filing workers' compensation claims for injuries sustained at the Salinas plant by two Smurfit Stone managers. Smurfit-Stone is a manufacturer of paperboard and paper-based packaging and is an international corporation headquartered in Chicago. The Salinas plant employs about 120 persons.
The DOI said complaints stated that Smurfit-Stone Managers David Lawrence Polk, 53, and Douglas Minoru Tateoka, 61, drove injured workers to the "company doctor," Eugene Guzman, 61, who was actually a physician assistant at Pinnacle Health Care on Blanco Road in Salinas.