Three former employees of the company Tristar, and their wives, are facing charges that they allegedly stole more than $1.5 million from the County of Los Angeles.

Tristar is a third-party administrator of workers’ compensation claims for the county.

Christian Ramirez, 24, and Hugo Ramirez, 26, who are brothers, are each charged with nine felony counts including making false and fraudulent claims, claims adjuster fraud, grand theft of personal property, grand theft by embezzlement, public officer embezzling for personal use, false personation, and failure to file an income tax return. Their father, Javier Ramirez, 51, also a former Tristar employee, is charged with five felony counts, along with his wife, Maria Ochoa, 47, who is charged with six felony counts.

In addition, the wives of the two brothers — Sandra Orozco, 24, and Dominique Boudreaux, 25 — are each charged with six counts. Fraud investigators from the California Department of Insurance arrested the six defendants on Sept. 29.

Tristar Insurance Group is the county’s third-party administrator for workers’ compensation claims.

The Ramirez brothers were employed as claims adjusters for Tristar Insurance Group and were responsible for administering workers’ compensation claims of county employees injured on the job.

A California Department of Insurance investigation revealed that the brothers allegedly referred transportation and investigative business to four companies — Transco Transportation, Inc., Universal Transportation Services, Paramount Transportation and Oncall Investigation Services — which are owned by their family members. The companies would then sub-contract the services to other vendors and allegedly pocket the difference in the costs. Javier Ramirez allegedly processed the fraudulent bills. If convicted, the defendants face up to nine years in state prison.