By Tom Blakey
Transcript Staff Writer
A Norman man and Oklahoma City man — owners of Fairway Employment Services, with offices in Norman — were convicted Tuesday of defrauding Oklahoma businesses by billing them for workers’ compensation insurance coverage that did not exist.
Justin Bruner, 36, of Norman, and Paul W. Voyles Jr., 66, of Oklahoma City, were convicted in federal court of violating federal mail fraud statutes.
The jury was unable to reach verdicts on three counts charging Bruner with knowingly filing false employment tax returns.
Government attorneys are considering whether a retrial is warranted, according to John C. Richter, United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.
“These men sold their business customers bogus workers’ compensation insurance. The victim companies paid for insurance thinking their workers were covered in the event of a workplace accident. Instead, as the jury found in this case, the defendants had sold these companies a bill of goods,” Richter said.
Fairway Employment Services was a professional employment organization, or PEO, that started operating in December 2000. Bruner, the president of Fairway, owned 40 percent of the business. Voyles owned 20 percent of Fairway and was responsible for securing insurance for, among other things, workers’ compensation through his independent insurance agency, Great States Insurance.
Both defendants were charged with causing Fairway to send invoices to client companies for workers’ compensation coverage from late February 2001 to mid-June 2001 when they knew that Fairway did not have any workers’ compensation insurance. The jury heard evidence that after February 2001, when Fairway received notice that it had no coverage through Great American Insurance Company, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, Voyles sent invalid and unauthorized certificates of workers’ compensation insurance to client companies. The jury also heard evidence that both Bruner and Voyles knew that Fairway never paid premiums for workers’ compensation coverage to any insurer during the relevant time period.
After four days of testimony, the jury concluded Bruner and Voyles violated the federal mail fraud statute when Fairway sent fraudulent invoices for workers’ compensation fees to May Drilling in Perry, by Airborne Express in April, May and June of 2001.
Both defendants face a potential penalty of five years in prison on each of the counts of conviction, in addition to a fine of up to $250,000 on each count and restitution to victims. Sentencing will take place in about 90 days.
Richter commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys David L. Walling and Scott E. Williams, who prosecuted the case, and the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service and the Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit of the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.
Tom Blakey366-3540tblakey@normantranscript.com
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Norman, OKC men convicted of fraud
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