A former counselor at the Preston Youth Correctional Facility in Ione has been charged with workers' compensation insurance fraud. Sacramento County prosecutors charged 32-year-old Alexander Bourdaniotis with six felonies, alleging he defrauded the state of more than 150,000 dollars. He is accused of falsely telling state prison officials that he could no longer work after he was injured by an inmate in 2005. Eight days following the attack, investigators found Bourdaniotis allegedly had enrolled in and completed a 45-hour correspondence course with the California Department of Real Estate to get a real estate license.

The following day, Bourdaniotis allegedly took and passed the Department of Real Estate's salesperson examination, which had a 63 percent failure rate on that day, according to the release. All this came while Bourdaniotis allegedly claimed his injuries were so debilitating that he "could not follow the plot of a TV program," the release said. They say he could have returned to work instead of receiving 30,000 dollars in medical benefits and more than 120,000 dollars in disability payments. Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The district attorney's office says Bourdaniotis has not yet hired an attorney.