WA Man Charged in $80K Worth of L-I Workers Comp Fraud

A 49-year-old WA man is facing a pre-trial hearing in April.

   The Man is Accused of Major Labor and Industry Injury Fraud

The suspect was working for Mission Foods in 2017, headquartered in Texas, and sustained what he said was a back injury as well as neck and shoulders. He claimed he was too injured, and received worker's comp and retraining benefits.  He was working for them in WA.

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Jon Paul Traff then later went to work for Flowers Baking Company, based out of Oregon, in 2024.   He signed 78 L-I affidavits claiming he was too injured to work, but investigators found the two jobs overlapped.

He said he'd been working for Flowers for a year-and-a-half when he reported a second injury.  While working for Flowers in sales, he was compensated at least $68,000. Officials said he intentionally failed to mention he overlapped on the jobs, and failed to report he was making a lot of additional income.

According to investigators, his false reporting and fraud resulted in an overpayment of at least $80K from the state. He faces a pre-trial hearing in April in Snohomish County Superior Court.