Prosecutors in Monterey County have filed seven criminal counts against the small construction firm that employed Robert Reagan, the bulldozer operator killed last July while working the massive Soberanes Fire, the costliest wildfire in U.S. history.

Reagan’s death prompted investigations by Cal Fire and state workplace regulators, as well as the state agency that keeps tabs on California’s construction industry. The incident led to a wrongful death lawsuit against the state. And it brought attention to vulnerabilities faced by hundreds of private contractors that help battle California’s wildfires year after year.

The construction company, which is based in Coarsegold (Madera County), told the Contractors State License Board (CSLB) it had no employees and therefore did not need to provide worker’s compensation, board spokesman Rick Lopes said. This is not the first problem it has had with the Board. It has had its license suspended eight times by state regulators in the last four years.

In July 2012, CSLB investigators found that a crew employed by the company was not covered by workers’ compensation insurance. Czirban was then cited and fined $3,500. The company did not pay that fine right away, so its contractors license was suspended. The firm agreed to a payment plan with the agency to pay the fine – but it failed to make a payment and its license was suspended again.

The company’s license was then suspended several other times because its subcontractors and material suppliers were not paid, Lopes said.

KQED news reports that the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office is now charging Ian Czirban, the owner of Czirban Concrete Construction, with two counts of insurance fraud, two counts of filing a forged document, tax evasion, failure to collect taxes and failure to provide workers’ compensation insurance. Six of the seven charges are felonies.

Czirban has not been arrested. Prosecutors have sent him a “notice to appear” for arraignment in Monterey County Superior Court in Salinas on May 11.

Czirban’s lawyers have argued that he was not required to carry workers’ compensation insurance and that Cal Fire, not the company, was responsible for Reagan.

The charges come after state regulators moved to bar the company from working in California. The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) announced in March that the firm violated three state regulations in connection with its work on the fire.

Along with Czirban, a private company that hired a water tender driver seriously injured in the Soberanes Fire also did not have workers’ compensation insurance. Czirban Concrete is one of a number of companies Cal Fire has contracted with on the Soberanes Fire – a practice the agency employs on large fires.

“We have many companies that we contract with throughout the state and they can be utilized in any area,” Cal Fire spokeswoman Lynne Tolmachoff said. “The only time they are hired is for emergency incidents. We do not use these contracts for day-to-day projects.”