If you ever use third-party staffing providers, keep an eye on these developments: don't be vulnerable to fraudulent schemes like this
Factoring company TemPay was swindled out of $2.7million by former staffing firm owner Otto Biltres, 42. The Florida-based man has been sentenced to more than a decade behind bars for three years’ worth of fraudulent invoices.
Biltres’ temporary staffing firm, Biltres Staffing of Tampa Bay, created an elaborate scheme to fool Ohio-based factoring company TemPay into handing over cash to four nonexistent companies. He went so far as to set up fake websites, post office boxes, bank accounts and email addresses for each company, claiming that his firm was supplying these companies with employees.
It wasn’t the first time Biltres pulled the wool over businesses in the staffing and HR fields, though. In June last year, he was arrested for allegedly being involved in a workers’ compensation fraud scheme. This time, his firm was allegedly called Preferred Staffing of America, Inc., and it was said to front as a licensed professional employer organization that provided services such as workers’ compensation insurance. In this scheme, police claim, he charged client companies more than $130,000 for services that never existed.
Biltres has yet to be sentenced for the latter allegations, but he could face up to 30 years’ prison time on top of the sentence already passed down this month.
Biltres’ temporary staffing firm, Biltres Staffing of Tampa Bay, created an elaborate scheme to fool Ohio-based factoring company TemPay into handing over cash to four nonexistent companies. He went so far as to set up fake websites, post office boxes, bank accounts and email addresses for each company, claiming that his firm was supplying these companies with employees.
It wasn’t the first time Biltres pulled the wool over businesses in the staffing and HR fields, though. In June last year, he was arrested for allegedly being involved in a workers’ compensation fraud scheme. This time, his firm was allegedly called Preferred Staffing of America, Inc., and it was said to front as a licensed professional employer organization that provided services such as workers’ compensation insurance. In this scheme, police claim, he charged client companies more than $130,000 for services that never existed.
Biltres has yet to be sentenced for the latter allegations, but he could face up to 30 years’ prison time on top of the sentence already passed down this month.