The owner of California’s largest vocational return-to-work counseling center was among those accused of forging injured workers’ signatures to take thousands of dollars in funds meant to help employees reenter the workforce, according to state officials.
Hazel Ortega of La Habra, who owns Ortega Counseling Center in Whittier, along with alleged co-conspirators Gemi Bertran and Elbert Irving were arraigned on 31 felony counts related to the alleged scheme, the California Department of Insurance announced Monday, Feb. 23.
Detectives started investigating the purported scheme after an injured worker read about prior charges brought against Ortega through a department investigation, alleging she forged unknowing workers’ signatures on insurance paperwork to receive money. She was previously charged with 23 felony counts in that case, including insurance fraud, grand theft and forgery.
The worker told detectives in 2024 that, when they tried to use their voucher from the Supplemental Job Displacement Benefit program, the funds were drained without their knowledge, according to the Department of Insurance.
Detectives learned that multiple workers’ vouchers, which provide $6,000 to $10,000 for injured workers to retrain at state-approved or accredited schools, were spent on schools they never attended and, in some cases, knew nothing about, state investigators said.
Bertran, owner of Nourish the Brain Institute in San Luis Obispo, allegedly billed insurance companies for students to attend his school but actually referred them to an unaccredited and unapproved school, Hollywood Film World, owned by Irving, who is Ortega’s common-law husband, according to the Department of Insurance.
None of the students attended either school, so the co-conspirators could keep the educational benefit funds for themselves, detectives alleged.
Investigators also accused Ortega of pressuring injured workers to sign blank documents that were used to submit fraudulent invoices to insurance companies.
The Department of Insurance believes there are more injured workers whose educational benefits accounts have been unknowingly drained. Anyone who believes they are a victim of the scheme can contact the Department at 909-919-2200.