Yellowstone Actress Q’orianka Kilcher Charged With $97,000 Disability Payment Fraud
Actress Q’orianka Kilcher from the film Yellowstone has been charged with two felonies for fraudulently obtaining workers’ compensation insurance. According to a statement from the California Department of Insurance, the 32-year-old received disability benefits totaling more than $90,000 despite working on the popular show. In October 2018, Kilcher allegedly suffered neck and right shoulder injuries while filming the scene for Dora and the Lost City of Gold. A year later, she reportedly informed a physician that although she had received employment offers, her neck pain was too severe to allow her to accept them. As a result, she started receiving temporary complete disability payments.
Kilcher had been occupied with Yellowstone between July and October of 2019. Five days after she last worked on the show, the statement states that she went back to the doctor and began getting disability payments. According to the doctor who evaluated her claim, if they had known about it, they would not have approved her for disability benefits. Kilcher earned $96,838 in disability payments from October 14, 2019, to September 9, 2021.
The role of Pocahontas that Kilcher played in Terrence Malick’s 2005 film “The New World” has made her the movie star. She also starred as Princess Kaiulani in the 2009 movie about Hawaii’s colonization, as well as Kawillaka, an Inca princess, in the 2019 “Dora” movie. In season three of “Yellowstone,” which aired in 2020, she had four appearances.
In October 2018, Kilcher allegedly suffered neck and right shoulder injuries while filming the “Dora” movie. According to her counsel, she was a passenger in a production car when the accident happened. She visited a doctor a few times after that but stopped receiving care, and she didn’t answer when her employer’s insurance company contacted her, according to the Department of Insurance.
A year later, in October 2019, Kilcher contacted the insurer to request therapy, according to the agency. She informed the doctor who processed her claim that she had not worked for a year because of her neck pain, which had gotten so bad that she had to turn down jobs. According to the department, she received temporary total disability compensation right away.
Following a check of wage records, investigators discovered that Kilcher had contributed to “Yellowstone” from July to October of 2019 – right before seeking treatment. The department stated that Kilcher’s employment there had ended just five days before starting to receive benefits. The agency claimed that the doctor later claimed he would not have authorized the payments if he had been aware of her recent employment history.