State investigators accuse a Raleigh man of orchestrating an elaborate scheme in which he got two insurance companies to pay him more than $150,000 in workers' compensation benefits on behalf of employers who did not exist, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Monday.

Gregory Pettiford
(Wake County photo)

Gregory Pettiford, 48, was arrested Friday on four felony charges. 

An investigator for the North Carolina Industrial Commission issued warrants for Pettiford's arrest on June 20. The warrants state that Pettiford obtained $123,339 from Continental Insurance Co. after securing a workers' compensation insurance policy for a nonexistent company. 

He then obtained $33,971 in temporary disability benefits from The Hartford Insurance Co., also from a policy issued to a nonexistent company. 

The warrants did not specify how Pettiford obtained the policies or received the benefits.