CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A former field auditor for Brickstreet Insurance will spend six years in federal prison for cheating the workers’ compensation insurance company out of more than $7 million.
Arville Sargent, 52, of Chapmanville, was sentenced for fraud in U.S. District Court on Friday.
In March, he plead guilty to taking bribes from four coal contracting companies, between January 2006 and at least February 2011, and allowing the companies to underreport the number of people they employed.
Federal prosecutors said the bribes added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars and included other items, like an all terrain vehicle.
As a result of Sargent’s actions, Aracoma Contracting, Christian Contracting, Newhall Contracting and T&W Services saved millions of dollars in insurance premiums that should have been paid to Brickstreet to cover their workers if they were injured on the job.
“Employers in the coal mining industry who cheat the workers’ compensation insurance system are really only cheating the hard working miners who risk injury to perform dangerous jobs to provide for their families,” said U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin when charges were first filed against Sargent in February.
Sargent is the fifth person to be sentenced for a role in the scheme.