Contractor found guilty of tax evasion in connection to Soberanes Fire death.

The Soberanes Fire in 2016 destroyed a lot of property and caused the fatality of one person: a bulldozer operator named Robert Oliver Reagan III, who was hired to help fight the flames. 

Investigators determined that he died because his bulldozer rolled over on the steep terrain of Palo Colorado and tossed him out before crushing him. They also discovered that the general contractor who had hired Reagan to perform contract work for Cal Fire didn’t carry workers’ compensation insurance. 

This lapse eventually led to criminal charges against the contractor, Ian Nathaniel Czirban, and on Oct. 17, Judge Andrew Liu of Monterey County Superior Court found him guilty of payroll tax evasion, submitting false documents to Cal Fire and failing to carry workers’ compensation insurance.

The maximum sentence that Czirban faces is four years and eight months in prison plus restitution to Reagan’s heirs.