A Silver Spring floral company will pay $1.25 million to the state and federal governments to settle allegations that it told some employees to submit false unemployment insurance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.
The government brought the civil case against Potomac Floral Wholesale Inc. of 2403 Linden Lane because of a complaint filed in January 2021 by Travis Gabriel, a former sales manager. Gabriel alleged the company’s owner and CEO, Tsur “Jacob” Reiss, violated state and federal laws by instructing employees to apply for unemployment insurance benefits while continuing to work for the floral company without pay, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a Wednesday press release.
Reiss and the company instructed employees to do so from March 1 to Dec. 31 in 2020, according to the release.
“Because individuals collecting [unemployment insurance] must be unemployed, not completing work for an employer, Potomac Floral’s and Mr. Reiss’s conduct caused the submission of false [unemployment insurance] claims in violation of the False Claims Act,” the release stated.
Reiss’s attorney, Stephen Stern of the Annapolis-based Kagan Stern Marinello & Beard law firm, said in a statement emailed to MoCo360 Monday that Potomac Floral and Reiss “strongly deny any allegations of wrongdoing.” He noted the settlement agreement states that it is not “an admission of liability” by the company.
“Although neither Potomac...
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