VIRGINIA GARDENS, Fla. – State investigators made yet another arrest Tuesday in a case involving a “fraudulent insurance school” near the Miami airport, where they said prospective insurance agents would pay to have someone else take state licensing examinations on their behalf. Authorities say 820 exams were “subverted” in the scheme.
Diana Nodarse Cruz, 36, of Miami Lakes, is facing six felony charges — including a count of racketeering — in connection with the case, which centers around D&R Academy, which was run out of an office building at 6405 NW 36th St. in Virginia Gardens.
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She joins her husband, Rainier Miguel Salas, 59, and his son, Rainier Alexander Salas, 27, both of Miami, in facing charges in the case. Authorities, calling their conduct “reprehensible,” arrested the Salases in late June, along with Karla Lit Peralta, 26, of Miami Gardens. Prosecutors later dropped Peralta’s charges and said she was cooperating with the state.
Investigators arrested another suspect, Jaroslav Verner, 32, of Alpharetta, Georgia, in September.
The names of five other people described as “associates” are mentioned in the report. They did not appear in Miami-Dade court records as of Wednesday afternoon.
Nodarse is accused of working as her husband’s business partner. An arrest report states she “scheduled appointments for illicit licensing, completed preliminary pre-licensing hours, obtained and transmitted biographical, credit card and state identifications and directed (her husband) on what to charge for this illegal service.”
Authorities said text messages on the elder Salas’ phone showed she was helping him act as an unlicensed agent. Salas, a convicted felon prohibited from obtaining an insurance license, texted her in 2021, “Amor, send me the health care site to quote.”
She sent him a link to the Affordable Care Act marketplace website, the arrest report states.
Authorities said the scheme ran from 2021 to 2024.
Nodarse, charged with racketeering, organized scheme to defraud, communications fraud, unlawful use of a communications device, representing or aiding an unauthorized insurer and acting as an insurance agent without a license, was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center as of Wednesday afternoon.
According to jail records, before she posts her $12,500 bond, she’ll have to prove the funds came from a legitimate source.
Cases against the Salases and Verner remained active in the Miami-Dade court system as of Wednesday.