NewsNational/World News

Actions

'Yellowstone' actor charged with disability payment fraud

Q'orianka Kilcher
Posted at 7:48 PM, Jul 11, 2022
and last updated 2022-07-11 21:48:24-04

Officials say "Yellowstone" actor Q'Orianka Kilcher has been charged with illegally collecting nearly $97,000 in disability benefits while working on the TV show.

The California Department of Insurance says the actor is charged with two felony counts of workers' compensation fraud. The department alleges Kilcher illegally collected disability payments from 2019 to 2021 by claiming she couldn't work because of severe pain from a neck injury suffered while filming "Dora and the Lost City of Gold" in 2018.

The department says she actually spent several months filming "Yellowstone" in 2019. Her attorney says she never intentionally took benefits to which she wasn't entitled and will mount a vigorous defense.

In a statement her attorney, Michael Becker, said that Kilcher was a passenger in a production vehicle when she was hurt, the Associated Press reported.

“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 said.