SCRANTON -- A businessman from Carbon County has been sent to prison for selling fake insurance policies to other businesses.
Alfonso Sebia of Lehighton owns America Coast to Coast, a company that provides workers compensation insurance for other businesses.
He was sentenced Wednesday to seven months in prison because he was selling insurance policies that didn't exist.
We talked to two businesses that bought the fake policies and the owners said it has cost them thousands and could have put them out of business.
Kevin McDonough has owned Mac Signs for close to 30 years. The business is responsible for hanging the city's new "Electric City" sign, but McDonough never thought he'd find himself across the street at the Lackawanna County Courthouse.
"He said, 'I guess we'll see you in court'. Lo and behold, here we are," said McDonough.
McDonough was the first of several businesses to uncover fraud at the hands of Alfonso Sebia. His company, America Coast to Coast, sold workers comp insurance to Mac Signs, but the policies were fake. The company in Scranton never had coverage.
"When one of my employees gets hurt, it's hard. And if there was a catastrophic injury during this time, just put the key in the door and I'm done."
Robyn Zenzinger represented another company defrauded by Sebia. Her employer, Workforce in Sunbury, had two workers suffer injuries last year when the company was doing business with Sebia.
Those two claims have cost the company tens of thousands of dollars so far.
"But when I reported these injuries and I could tell I was being strung along, my antenna were up immediately and when I eventually found out no, in fact, we did not have coverage, it's maddening. It's frightening. What can you say?" said Zenzinger.
In court, Alfonso Sebia called the whole ordeal an "error in judgement." He was sent to the Lackawanna County prison and was ordered to pay back close to $200,000 in restitution.
