Man pleads guilty to taking compensation illegally

A Troy man has pleaded guilty to  taking compensation illegally.

Jacobi Curtis, of Troy, recently pleaded guilty to felony theft for illegally collecting workers’ compensation benefits. 

The Montana State Fund (MSF) Special Investigations Unit was made aware that Curtis was working as an Independent Contractor at the same time he was receiving workers’ compensation benefits. 

Curtis was receiving benefits because of a work-related injury at his previous place of employment.

 The Montana Attorney General’s Office filed felony theft charges against Curtis and the court ordered him to pay $2109.22 in restitution.

Since the program’s inception in 1993, MSF has recovered more than $54 million from fraudulent claims. 

Montana State Fund insures nearly 28,000 employers in Montana.

Anyone with information about possible workers’ compensation fraud should contact MSF’S Fraud Hotline at 1-888-MT CRIME (1-888-682-7463). 

This process is strictly confidential.

Workers’ compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee’s right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. 

The tradeoff between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as “the compensation bargain.”

While plans differ among jurisdictions, provision can be made for weekly payments in place of wages (functioning in this case as a form of disability insurance).