January 30, 2025
The head of a Jacksonville painting business has pleaded guilty to being part of a workman’s comp scam that prosecutors said cost the government millions in uncollected taxes and helped hide illegal immigrants on jobsites.
Dorothy Thompson-Avila, 44, was the last to plead guilty out of three people indicted together in May 2023 on charges of wire fraud conspiracy and conspiring to defraud the federal government.
She entered her plea last week, days after a co-defendant, Honduran native Jose Molina-Herrera, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for his part in the fraud, which provided bogus workman’s comp insurance to contractors in places including Duval, Clay and St. Johns counties. State corporation records identify Thompson-Avila as manager of DT Eastern Painters LLC in Jacksonville, but that company is not among the several businesses named in the fraud case.
Florida requires contractors to have workman’s comp coverage for their crews, but prosecutors said the scam used shell companies to buy insurance, then rent that insurance to far more contractors than the policy could cover.
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