Auburn business owner pleads guilty to fraud
Safe N Sound storage operator received more than $250,000 in worker’s comp money
An Auburn business owner faces prison after he pleaded guilty to fraudulently accepting more than $250,000 in federal worker’s compensation payments. Mark Anthony Correnti, owner of Safe N Sound storage in Auburn, possibly faces five years in prison after he signed a plea agreement Friday stating he was guilty to seven counts of filing false statements to obtain federal employee’s compensation. According to the agreement filed in the Eastern District of the United States District Court, Correnti “knowingly made false statements” on several Department of Labor forms filled out on several dates between January 2000 and September 2008. For example, Correnti wrote “yes” when asked if he was “unemployed for all periods during the past 15 months,” the agreement stated. Prosecutors wrote in the plea agreement that during that eight-year period, Correnti received $251,609.52 in disability payments he was not entitled to. In July 2008, Office of Inspector General Department of Defense undercover special agents met with Correnti at his storage yard located off an unmarked driveway on Locksley Lane in North Auburn. The undercover agents asked about renting storage space. During the conversation, Correnti reportedly told the agents that “he is at the location at all times; that he is the one responsible for the decisions at the business; that the business sis all he does; that it is his ‘dream job,’” according to the plea agreement. Correnti also reportedly told them he was in business for eight years. Investigators also uncovered videotaped Placer County Board of Supervisors meetings during which Correnti appeared on behalf of Safe N Sound Storage. They also found court filings between Correnti and customers, contractors and neighbors. The court papers stated that Correnti and his wife own Safe N Sound Storage, according to the plea agreement. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said it would not seek forfeiture of Safe N Sound Storage as part of the agreement. Correnti identified himself when the Journal called the phone number for the storage yard Monday. He declined to comment about the case. On Monday, Safe N Sound’s gated yard housed about seven motor homes or trailers and about six boats. There was no office visible from the closed-off driveway and only a sign listing a phone number and P.O. Box address for payments. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Correnti started to receive disability payments from the federal government in 1989 after he injured his back working as a civilian employee for the U.S. Navy. Since 2000, the payments grew from about $2,000 a month to $2,214.72 a month in September 2008, the plea agreement stated. As part of the plea agreement, Correnti agreed to give up his right to appeal his conviction. Correnti’s sentencing is set for 9 a.m. Jan. 29, 2010 before U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell. The maximum sentence Correnti faces is five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Jenifer Gee can be reached at jeniferg@goldcountrymedia.com.
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I was not aware of the what appears to be the fact of that if you get Federal Workers Comp injury payments, that those payments can go on for year after year after year. 8 Years, State Work Comp eventually fades away over time.
Why can't he own a business and be on disability at the same time? Is he still disabled?
ChuxxR: In his case, his disability didn't get in the way of his earning an income...that's the point....he wasn't qualified to receive State Comp payments.
I think he can but it would lessen the ammount of disability funds that he recieves, and he would have had to tell them that he was working.
Federal workers comp is totally different from the state workers comp program. There is no payment from a federal worker into the state run system, and there are different rules etc. One would think he could work in a limited sense and still keep part of his disability if he declared it as such.
Chuxxr, Many disabled persons own a business and are not entitled to workman's comp. federal or state.
My name is Kathy Correnti, wife of Mark Correnti, so-called "felon". My husband has undergone major back surgery and remains disabled to this day, taking heavy narcotics like Oxycontin, Percocet, and Valium on a daily basis. Yes, he can do certain things sometimes, but he ends up paying for it usually by being layed up for a few days. Yes, he has represented me, the owner of Safe-N-Sound, at various meetings in which I was present at all the meetings. The County of Placer claims I was at a "few" of these meetings, when in reality I was at every one of them. The reason my husband was representing me was because I had a stroke in 1995 which I had to go to speech therapy and occupational therapy for. All I could say was "okay". Most people wouldn't know today that I even had a stroke, but still I have trouble getting my thoughts together sometimes and lose my train of thought often. How horrifying would that be to stand in front of the Board and forget what I was talking about! Yes, he went down to the yard to sign people up and tell them where to park. I felt he could do that at least. But he has never performed any physical labor down there, because of his back injury. Luckily I have two sons and lots of their friends who were willing to help out with whatever physical stuff that needed to be done. Yes, he should have written down that he was helping out at the yard, because the questions were so broadly written, but he didn't. to be continued
my husband felt his involvement was so minor, that it wasn't an issue. I never saw the paper he had to fill out every year, or things could have been different!!! But now we're going to lose our health insurance, so no drugs for Mark (then we'll both be in a lot of pain!!) Mark's Public Defender has told Mark that he's being made an example of. People have told us that if you use a Public Defender, you will most likely lose in most cases. But we couldn't afford an attorney. So he lost because of the threats of the Government repossessing Safe-N-Sound. The Plea Agreement was the only way to keep our business. And Mark is probably going to prison for 18 months, not five years. And we have about 50 vehicles in the yard at this moment, not 11, or whatever Jennifer Gee said. Or I hope they didn't all get stolen!!! Mark made no comment to the Auburn Journal because he has been misquoted in the past. Anyway, just wanted to tell my side of the story. Any questions or comments, make one. Regards, Kathy Correnti
SEACOL2: Sorry about you & Mark's situation...unfortunately, the Public Defender's office has again lived up to it's low expectations....once again we get the justice we can afford...isn't it a great system???
Steely, Only commit crimes if you are rich otherwise you might not be able to afford the attorney you want. Hmm, I wonder if that would reduce the crime rate.
JonGreen; No it wouldn't ...nice try at window-dressing the ugly downside to our jutice system though...
Do the crime and serve the time.
Thanks, Steelybob, for your support. And JonGreen, I feel there's so many mitigating factors in this case that they won't even look at because of the fact that he signed those papers every year. There doesn't seem to be any common sense. It's all black and white. They're not disputing that he has a back injury and is in pain every day, so why can't they look at this case and figure out a way to resolve it without taking away Mark's pain medication and payments for the rest of his life? But I agree with do the crime and serve the time, but he shouldn't be "serving time" for the rest of his life. And that's what he'll be doing without his medication.
And justchill out, you're right, he should have told them exactly what he was doing and probably they would have lowered his income. That's why I wish I would have read those papers he filled out. Mark HATES to read. He didn't even read the first investigative report they sent to him. I asked him, "Did you really say you made all the business decisions?" And he said, "No, I didn't say that. Who said that?" It was right in the report they had sent him. I asked him if he even read the report, and he said no. So I read it to him. So I'm sure after filling out that paperwork for years before the business opened, he just kept checking all the "no" boxes without even reading through it again, just thinking no, nobody would hire me unless they had a couch I could lay down on whenever I needed to, and could do without my services for days at a time. His attorney showed me the paper he had to fill out, and the part that asks Have you done any of this in the past however many months was really long. So I'm sure he didn't read it all the way through. Oh, well, live and learn. We'll be okay.
Wow-
After a Google of your husbands name I see he is no stranger to conflict! His tyrants with the city council were quite entertaining. He had no problem referring to Safe n Sound as his business to them? I guess you guys just do deals over there on a handshake? Your husband doesn't have any contracts to read or other documentation to run a business? I applaud a wife's loyalty to her husband but when you play the ostrich and have your head in the sand.......guess what is left sticking up in the air? I wish the best to you and your family but trying to make the victim the villain doesn't work for me......The Taxpayer and the System are the victim here....to the tune of $250,000. Where do you think this money comes from? Any hard working American knows where.....it's taken right out of their paycheck every payday! Stop the Madness. I say good work! Who's next?
- A Taxpayer
Some of the ignorant responses I have read (Taxpayer) doesn't surprise me. I have learned the hard way that large entities such as the County and the Government, have no one to answer to, have no fear of recourse from breaking the law, lying, and quashing the truth. I have experienced discrimination by the County as well as them breaking their own laws and not enforcing code to protect our property. Yes, I am half owner of the property, and took great interest when code was not enforced to protect our property, and lies were made about fees that were due. My concerns became so great, that my complaints were taken to the Board of Supervisors for our district. In fact they hired a private investigator to investigate our claims and upon discovering our claims were valid, quashed the report. My anger stemmed from the fact that the discrimination was so obvious, that it was shocking that no action was being taken. Until someone is affected by such incidence as what we've experienced, I can understand the ignorance. I have never had a record of any kind for breaking the law. And in fact joined the service at 17, and then went straight to civil service working at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard. I graduated second out of a class of 60 people through a 4-year apprenticeship. I graduated with an AS degree with honors with distinction as a maintence mechanic, a 3.8 GPA. And I graduated with an AA degree with honors. I had such a minor role involved (continued)
(CONTINUED)BY THE WAY, THIS IS MARK CORRENTI SPEAKING AND THE LAST POST TOO. -- IN MY WIFE'S BUSINESS, THAT I TRULY BELIEVED I WAS NOT BREAKING THE LAW. BY THE WAY, OUR PROPERTY WAS BEING DAMAGED ON A DAILY BASIS WHICH WAS CLEARLY DOCUMENTED ON VIDEOTAPE. THE CORRUPTION THAT I HAVE EXPERIENCED IS EXTREME AND SUPRISING TO NO END. AND UNTIL SOMEONE PERSONALLY EXPERIENCES IT THEMSELVES, THEY WILL BELIEVE EVERYTHING THEY HEAR OR SEE IN THE NEWS OR IN THE NEWSPAPERS. I DON'T ANYMORE!!! THE QUOTE THAT WAS MADE THAT I SAID I'M AT THE YARD EVERY DAY WAS DONE WHILE I WAS POINTING AT THE SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS. AND WAS TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT. MY WIFE HAS ALWAYS COMPLETELY RUN THE BUSINESS AND MAKES ALL OF THE BUSINESS DECISIONS THAT DEAL WITH ONLY THE BUSINESS. WE BOTH MAKE THEM REGARDING THE PROPERTY IMPROVEMENTS, ETC. BY FIGHTING THE SYSTEM AND NOT GIVING UP, I FEEL I WAS INTENTIONALLY TARGETED FOR ELIMINATION. II ADMIT THAT I WAS NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT IN DEALING WITH THE COUNTY, BUT UNTIL YOU HAVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE GOING THROUGH THE SYSTEM AND SEEING HOW BROKEN AND CORRUPT IT IS, I CAN UNDERSTAND THE IGNORANCE. REGARDS, MARK CORRENTI
Kathy, can you spell "he plead guilty?!" Let's see he pleads guilty when he isn't so he can get a reduced sentence.... Can you spell convicted felon - SEVEN COUNTS!!!! Get a get a grip tater chip!! As a tax payer, I hope the judge gives him 5 years and fines him $250K! Do you know the difference between your story and a fairy tale? A fairy tale starts out "once upon a time" your story starts out "can you believe!" Stop the BS - tell the judge, we don't want to hear it!!!
He pled guilty because the prosecutor threatened to take the business. Looking back, it was just scare tactics and Mark probably could have won. It seems that the DA and the Public Defender just wanted to get rid of the case. They were too busy to deal with it and just wanted it to go away. They had bigger fish to fry. My husband is a right fighter and they were looking for any way possible to discontinue his benefits and to get rid of him and his complaints. And to Gunners, 7 counts of doing the same thing over 7 years, so that means he did the same felony 7 times.