Three arrested in “ghost worker” scheme

Three people were arrested for embezzling money through “ghost worker” paychecks.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office said “it’s a complex scheme where crew bosses who work in the ag industry add an extra person to their crew, clock them in, and then collect and cash the ghost workers’ paycheck.”

The ghost worker does not actually work at the job site or do any work for the company.

They essentially don’t exist.

On Wednesday (8/22), the AG crimes unit of the investigations division served a search warrant as part of an ongoing embezzlement case involving ghost workers.

“One of the payroll companies called and said ‘This isn’t adding up, this doesn’t look like it’s going well’ and they used the term and reported to us the term “ghost workers,” said Cmdr. John Thornburg. “And therefore our detectives went out, they started their interviews and began their investigation.”

Investigators arrested Ofelia Rodriguez, 39, Octavio Nuci, 42, and Jesus Tomas, 53, all of Salinas. All three were booked into the Monterrey County Jail on theft, identity theft, conspiracy and embezzlement related charges.

Sheriff’s said ghost workers are common in the ag industry and this investigation “stopped thousands of dollars of embezzlement.”

The fields that were searched are contracted with Driscoll’s. We reached out to them for comment:

“We appreciate the great work of the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office to help one of our independent growers issue a search warrant as part of an ongoing embezzlement case involving ghost workers. It is unfortunate that our independent grower has potentially lost thousands of dollars of due to fraudulent activities from its workers. We are in support of law enforcement and are allowing the legal process to determine final outcomes.”

Authorities aren’t sure how widespread this is, but are continuing to investigate it.

“We have a lot of large companies in Monterey County, especially in the agricultural field where this took place, so we have a lot of follow-up to do to see what still needs to be done and what else might be going on,” Thornburg said.

Meantime, the president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on the Central Coast said “ghost workers” can happen in any industry, and offered these tips to business owners.

“It’s just a matter of keeping a watchful eye and making sure every person that does a timecard that gets submitted does really exist,” Sergio Sanchez said. “So it’s an ongoing auditing, ongoing that their bookkeeper or CPA looks at those and do random audits, making sure people really do exist.”