The California Department of Insurance (DOI) announced on Thursday, March 4, 2021, that Kia Lor, 54, of Merced has been arraigned on multiple counts of workers’ compensation insurance fraud. Lor, a Nutrition Assistant at the Merced Community Action Agency, suffered a back injury at a company picnic in 2018, while lifting a cooler. When filling out paperwork, and in discussions with the workers’ compensation insurance carrier and the Qualified Medical Examiner, Lor denied any previous back injuries and stood to receive $6,960 for permanent disability. A subsequent DOI investigation revealed that Lor had sustained injuries in multiple motor vehicle accidents in previous years, as recently as two years prior to the picnic incident. In addition, Lor had previously filed a workers’ compensation claim for a back injury ten years prior, in 2008.
Lor was arraigned at the Merced County Superior Court, and the case is being prosecuted by the Merced County District Attorney’s Office.