Fla. Electric Company Owner Charged With Fraud, Grand Theft

Edward L. Bee, the owner of two Bartow, Fla. electric companies, Bee Corporation Inc. and Harris Electric, has been charged with workers’ compensation fraud by the Florida Department of Financial Services Fraud Unit.

According to DFS, Bee has been charged with grand theft after the 2004 death of an employee, James Blundell, who died from burns sustained when an electrical transformer blew up. A DFS spokesman said Bee is accused with failing to provide workers’ compensation coverage, meaning the man’s family may not receive death benefits.

When Bee submitted a workers’ compensation application for Blundell after the accident, First Financial Leasing Inc. of Port Charlotte contacted the DFS fraud hotline. Blundell was working at US Agri-Chemical Inc. in Fort Meade on Sept. 11, 2004, when the accident occurred. He died three days later.

The DFS said Bee was paying Blundell and several other part-time employees and not reporting the payroll to the leasing company.

Checks for “contract labor” during 2003-04 were found on a second payroll that was not being reported, investigators said. The payroll totaled nearly $21,000, and the amount of the premium owed would have been just over $2,400.

Topics Fraud Workers' Compensation