Des Moines, Iowa Exec Pleads Guilty to Insurance Fraud

The president of a Des Moines firm that provides companies with temporary employees has pleaded guilty to a scheme to reduce the cost of his workers compensation insurance.

Under a plea agreement reached Thursday with prosecutors, DES Staffing President Dinesh Sethi pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. He acknowledged that he participated in a scheme to defraud Travelers Insurance and Liberty Mutual between 2006 and 2009 by giving the insurers’ false information to calculate the firm’s premiums.

In particular, he acknowledged that he and his director of finance shifted payroll from high-premium job classification codes to lower-premium codes such as clerical workers.

Prosecutors dismissed five other charges against Sethi and agreed not to prosecute the company or his family members. Sethi remains free pending Dec. 19 sentencing.