For release on March 29, 2022
CONTACT:
Mattia Corsiglia
Deputy District Attorney
Insurance Fraud Unit
(408) 792-2526
Former San Jose Police Officer Sentenced to Jail for Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme
A retired San Jose Police officer was sentenced today to three years in jail for using a side security business to commit millions of dollars in insurance fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, and worker exploitation.
In January of this year, Robert Foster, 48, of Morgan Hill, was convicted of a series of felony fraud charges, including 173 acts of conspiring to commit $1.13 million in insurance fraud and $18 million in money laundering to cover it up. Foster will also serve two years of mandatory supervision when he finishes his jail sentence.
Prior to his sentencing, Foster repaid complete restitution of $1.13 million to Everest National Insurance and the Employment Development Department. There was also a general order of restitution for the purpose of paying exploited workers.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said: "No one is above accountability for illegally trying to make a profit on the backs (and injured bodies) of their workers.”
Foster owns Atlas Private Security (now Genesis Private Security) with his wife, Mikaila Foster, 46, who also pleaded no contest to the same insurance fraud and money laundering charges. She will be sentenced to one year in county jail and five years of probation on April 29th.
The former officer owned the business without the knowledge of the SJPD.
The six-month investigation was spearheaded by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office Bureau of Investigation in close collaboration with the California Department of Insurance, Employment Development Department, Department of Justice, and the Department of Labor.
The Fosters illegally reduced their workers’ compensation insurance premiums and taxes by reporting false and inaccurate payroll, underreporting headcount, paying employees off-the-books, and underreporting employee injuries. The Fosters failed to pay employees overtime and dissuaded those employees from accurately reporting on-the-job injuries and wage-theft violations.
The probe also uncovered that the Fosters hid millions of dollars of payroll through a complex subcontractor masking scheme. Employees were paid by a different security company, Defense Protection Group (DPG), which had no knowledge of the employees’ hours, wages, or schedules. Instead, DPG simply moved money from the Fosters’ firm to the employees so that the Fosters could avoid paying their fair share of taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, and overtime wages.
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