Actress Q’orianka Kilcher faces criminal charges for allegedly receiving disability benefits when she was able to work.
The 32-year-old star was charged with illegally cashing nearly $97,000 in disability benefits while working on the hit TV show “Yellowstone,” authorities said Monday.
Kilcher is charged with two felony counts of employee insurance fraud, the California Department of Insurance said in a statement.
Kilcher reportedly injured her neck and right shoulder during her stay at “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” in October 2018, the insurance department said.
Her attorney, Michael Becker, said she was a passenger in a production vehicle when the injury occurred.
“Third-party doctors have verified her injury and entitlement to benefits. Ms. Kilcher was candid with her doctors and practitioners at all times, and she never intentionally accepted benefits she didn’t think she was entitled to,” Becker said.
A year later, she told a doctor handling the insurance claim that she was offered a job but couldn’t take it because of severe neck pain from her injury.
Between 2019 and 2021, Kilcher received a cool $96,838 in her bank account as temporary disability benefits. But an investigation later found that she was working on “Yellowstone” in 2019 in the same few months she claimed to be disabled.
“According to the records, she returned to the doctor and began receiving disability benefits five days after she last worked on the show,” the statement said.
Kilcher was arraigned in May on the charges.
Becker, who also said she provided regular updates to her case worker at the Division of Workers’ Compensation, said Kilcher “will defend herself vigorously”.
He also asked that Kilcher “be given the presumption of innocence both inside and outside the courthouse.”
Kilcher’s court date is set for August 7.
The actress is best known for her role as Angela Blue Thunder in four episodes of “Yellowstone”, which also stars Kevin Costner.
Kilcher also portrayed Pocahontas in the 2005 film “The New World”.
With Post wires