Entertainment
The New World star Q’orianka Kilcher charged with workers’ compensation fraud after collecting $96,000 in disability benefits-Tori Brazier-Entertainment – Metro
The actress is alleged to have said an injury prevented her from working for a year, while working on TV show Yellowstone.
Kilcher is facing two felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud (Picture: Rex)
Q’orianka Kilcher is facing charges after allegedly collecting over $96,000 (£81,300) in disability benefits even though she was working.
The 32-year-old Preuvian-American actress, who first found fame as Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s The New World, opposite Colin Farrell and Christian Bale, has been charged with two felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud in Los Angeles County.
Kilcher is said to have received a total of $96,838 (£ 82,090) in temporary disability insurance benefits after injuring her neck and shoulder during filming for Dora and the Lost City of Gold in 2018.
However, an investigation by the California Department of Insurance found that she had allegedly broken the law after she was found healthy enough to work on Paramount Plus TV show Yellowstone the following year.
The actress played Angela Blue Thunder during the third season of the drama, which stars Kevin Costner, Luke Grimes and Wes Bentley, and aired in 2020.
Kilcher was charged and pleaded not guilty to the charges on May 27, although the department only made the news public this week in a release issued from the department and seen by Variety.
The actress said she was injured on the set of Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which left her unable to work (Picture: Jim Ruymen/UPI/Rex/Shutterstock)
Kilcher first found fame in 2005 as Pocahontas in Terrence Malick’s The New World (Picture: Merie W Wallace/New Line/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
The star’s lawyer denied the charges and told the publication that Kilcher ‘never intentionally accepted benefits that she did not believe she was entitled to’.
‘As such, Ms Kilcher will vigorously defend herself and asks that she be afforded the presumption of innocence both in and outside the courthouse,’ her attorney, Michael Becker, added.
He also said that she had been a passenger in a production vehicle for Dora and the Lost City of Gold, for which she played Kawillaka, an Inca princess, when the injury occurred.
She shot her role in Yellowstone in 2019 after reportedly telling an insurer she was unable to work (Picture: Cam McLeod/Paramount/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock)
According to the Department of Insurance, she went to a doctor for a few visits in the aftermath, before stopping getting treatment and not responding to an inquiry from her employer’s insurance company.
Kilcher is then said to have reached out to the insurer to seek treatment a year later, in October 2019, allegedly telling the doctor that her neck pain had forced her to turn down roles and left her without work for a year.
Kilcher denies the allegations (Picture: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
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Investigators are said to have found wage statements that showed Kilcher was working on Yellowstone from July to October 2019 and began collecting benefits just five days after she wrapped on the job.
The actress has also appeared in the lead role in 2009’s Princess Kaiulani as well as in Netflix series The Alienist, with Luke Evans and Daniel Brühl, as Mary Palmer.
Metro.co.uk has contacted Kilcher’s reps for further comment.
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