Ex-West Virginia Workers’ Comp Auditor Sentenced

A former workers’ compensation auditor has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for taking bribes in exchange for allowing coal company contractors to underreport their payroll.

The Charleston Gazette reports Arville Sargent was sentenced Friday in federal court in Charleston.

The 52-year-old Chapmanville resident was charged with mail fraud and tax evasion in February and pleaded guilty a month later.

Sargent was an auditor for BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Company, the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurance provider. U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin has said the fraud cheated BrickStreet out of millions of dollars in insurance premiums it was owed.

Besides Sargent, four others have been sentenced in the multimillion-dollar scheme.