Yellowstone actor Q’Orianka Kilcher is in big trouble. The actress has been charged with worker compensation/ disability payment fraud.
Kilcher had claimed injury payment for more than a year but apparently continued to shoot for the tv show ‘Yellowstone’ in that time period.
Q’orianka Kilcher Charged With Payment Fraud
The 32-year-old actor has been charged with illegally collecting payment of almost $97,000 in disability benefits while working on the TV show ‘Yellowstone’.
According to the Associated Press, Kilcher is charged with two felony counts of workers’ compensation insurance fraud. The detail was mentioned in a report from the California Department of Insurance.
Kilcher, who has acted in films like ‘The New World,’ ‘Princess Kaiulani,’ and ‘Dora and the Lost City of Gold,’ had allegedly injured her right shoulder and neck according to the insurance department.
A year later from the incident, Kilcher told a medical professional who was handling the insurance claim that she couldn’t accept the work offered to her because of severe neck pain from the injury. The ‘Yellowstone’ actor received an amount of $96,838 in temporary disability benefits from 2019 to 2021.
Turns Out, Kilcher Was Lying About The Injury Claim
An investigation later carried out by the insurance department revealed that Kilcher had shot for ‘Yellowstone’ for several months in 2019 in the period she claimed to be disabled and injured.
The official statement said, “According to records, she returned to the doctor and started receiving disability benefits five days after last working on the show.”
The actor had surrendered and was called on the charges in May this year. Her attorney, Michael Becker, said that Kilcher was a passenger in the production vehicle when she was disabled.
He said, “Third-party doctors verified her injury and entitlement to benefits. Ms. Kilcher was at all times candid with her doctors and treatment providers[…]and she never intentionally accepted benefits that she did not believe she was entitled to”. Becker further added, “Kilcher will vigorously defend herself and asks that she be afforded the presumption of innocence both in and outside the courthouse.”
Kilcher played the role of Angela Blue Thunder, a tribal lawyer in the third season of the neo-western drama television series ‘Yellowstone’. The role was well-received as a depiction of Native Americans on a tv show.
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