MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Five people were arrested in a scheme that involved a staged Miami-Dade car wreck and nonexistent medical treatments -- all an effort to defraud two insurance companies out of more than $58,000, according to the office of Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.
Yulisa Del Carmen Diaz, Malouly Moreira Rodriguez, Gonzala Ramos Delgado, Yarisel Rodriguez Garcia, and Camilo Leon Fernandez are facing charges including organized scheme to defraud, patient brokering, staged accident, insurance fraud and grand theft.
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According to an arrest report, Leon Fernandez recruited a cooperating witness and Moreira Rodriguez to participate in a staged car crash. The three met somewhere in west Hialeah the night of Feb. 22 and then drove to the site of the staged crash, at Southwest 127th Avenue and Eighth Street in southwest Miami-Dade.
After the crash, Leon Fernandez instructed the witness to seek treatment at Blue Lake Physician Group at 4800 West Flagler St. in Miami.
Once the initial “treatment” concluded, Leon Fernandez paid the witness $1,500, with the understanding that she would get an additional $300 once the treatments concluded, the report states.
The witness didn’t return and officials allege that Leon Fernandez messaged her in Spanish via WhatsApp, instructing her to return to the clinic or “she would have to return the money he paid her,” according to investigators.
The report states that he warned the witness that “this is not a game” and “they are going to close the case.”
In March, the arrest form states that the witness agreed to cooperate with investigators. Under official supervision, she wore a hidden camera and microphone while visiting Blue Lake Physician Group, which allowed police to collect undercover surveillance footage.
Officials said the video revealed that Rodriguez Garcia oversaw day-to-day operations at the clinic and would give the witness blank treatment forms to sign without services rendered. Some of the forms were also signed by Rodriguez Garcia and Ramos Delgado.
Del Carmen Diaz was the front desk clerk at the clinic and also provided blank treatment forms for the witness to sign, according to the report.
Investigators with the CFO’s Division of Investigative and Forensic Services worked the case.
The five named suspects were taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center last week.