A San Francisco contractor and his wife were arraigned yesterday on multiple felony charges accusing them of denying a severely injured worker his benefits and underreporting payroll to both their insurance company and the state for years. Declan McKevitt, 47, and Grace McKevitt, 54, who, according to court records, own and manage An Dun Construction, pleaded not guilty to all charges and were released after posting $40,000 bail each.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the arraignment, saying the pair face charges including insurance fraud, failure to make required contributions, and failure to collect or pay over tax, according to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. Declan McKevitt alone faces additional charges of discouraging an injured worker from pursuing a workers' compensation claim, two counts of insurance fraud under California Insurance Code 1871.4(a)(1), and making a false and fraudulent statement to deny compensation. Both defendants denied the allegations.
A Table Saw Accident and a Denial
According to court records, an employee suffered a severely injured hand in a table saw accident that resulted in an amputated finger. Declan McKevitt allegedly denied that the injured worker was employed by An Dun Construction at all, and separately claimed the man was at the jobsite without his knowledge. Court records further allege that McKevitt told the injured worker to deny that the injury was work-related while he was seeking medical care.
Payroll records and witness statements showed the worker had actually been employed by An Dun Construction for about seven months before the injury, court records state. The false denial of employment caused a four-month delay in payment of the benefits owed to him. Under California Insurance Code Section 1871.4, making a false or fraudulent material statement to deny workers' compensation benefits is a felony punishable by two, three, or five years in state prison and fines up to $150,000 or double the amount defrauded, according to Eisner Gorin LLP.
Payroll and Tax Allegations
Beyond the injury claim itself, court records allege that Declan and Grace McKevitt underreported their payroll to their workers' compensation insurance company and to the California Employment Development Department. The couple is accused of failing to pay insurance premiums, income tax, payroll tax, and other legally required contributions, per the same court records. They face charges under California Unemployment Insurance Code Sections 2108, 2117.5, and 2118.5, which govern failure to make contributions, acting to evade tax, and failure to collect or pay over tax or other money owed to the state.
Willful failure to pay required payroll taxes or state contributions under those sections is punishable by up to one year in county jail, state prison time, and fines up to $20,000, according to the California Unemployment Insurance Code. San Francisco Department of Building Inspection records show An Dun Construction has previously handled permitted residential work in the city, including a $575,000 project on 17th Avenue.
Economic Crimes Unit Behind the Case
The San Francisco District Attorney's Office Economic Crimes Unit investigated and charged the case. That unit was launched in April 2020 specifically to prosecute employer crimes including payroll tax evasion and wage theft, according to Davis Vanguard. It has brought complex workers' comp cases before, including a December 2023 indictment of a local physician and his relative over a fraudulent medical billing scheme involving liens submitted to the state's workers' comp division.
The unit says it continues to investigate this matter along with other pending criminal investigations, and that people with information may remain anonymous by calling the Economic Crimes Unit tip line. Declan and Grace McKevitt are scheduled to return to court on October 15 at 9 a.m. in Department 9 at the Hall of Justice. Court records list the cases as McKevitt G, 26012204, and McKevitt D, 26012427.
Fraud's Wider Toll on the System
Cases like this one sit inside a much larger problem for California's insurance system. The California Department of Insurance estimates that workers' compensation fraud costs the state between $1 billion and $3 billion every year, driving up premiums for employers who follow the rules. Statewide, losses and expenses incurred by California workers' compensation insurers reached $16.7 billion in 2024, according to the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau.
State Compensation Insurance Fund, California's largest workers' comp insurer, reported that court-ordered restitution from its fraud investigations rose from $8.7 million in 2020 to more than $15 million in 2024. Nationally, the National Insurance Crime Bureau estimates workers' compensation fraud drains roughly $30 billion annually. Under Insurance Code Section 1871.9, the state is required to publicly post the names, case numbers, and sentences of anyone convicted of workers' comp fraud on the Department of Insurance website for five years.
