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The charges against Cuban Rainier Miguel Salas, a 59-year-old man accused of running a "fraudulent insurance school" near Miami International Airport, continue to mount.
Salas is now facing 19 additional charges, including operating an organized scheme to defraud, communication fraud, and acting as an unlicensed insurance agent.
The Cuban was arrested in late June for operating an insurance school in Virginia Gardens, where 820 licensing exams are believed to have been manipulated.
Alongside Salas, his son, 27-year-old Rainier Alexander Salas, a resident of Miami, and his ex-wife, 36-year-old Diana Nodarse Cruz, a resident of Miami Lakes, are also implicated and face charges related to the case.
New charges related to the illegal use of licenses
According to the authorities cited by Local 10, the latest charges against Salas are related to the illegal use of his son's insurance license.
An arrest report details that Salas, who has a history of insurance fraud and should not have been acting as an agent, made multiple unauthorized modifications to client policies, allowing him to collect illegal commissions.
In one instance, two victims reported an unexpected co-pay of $900 after enrolling in a plan that, according to what they had been told, would cover the entire cost.
Fraudulent changes to policies
Researchers from the Insurance Fraud Office found that Salas altered coverage and assigned agents to the policies without the clients' consent.
One of the affected individuals stated that their policy had been modified twice to assign a different agent.
In another case, Yurisadairis Salazar Salazar, 36, also of Cuban origin and a resident of Miramar, would have made similar changes.
Salazar was arrested in early December along with Darwin José Ayala, a 39-year-old insurance agent from Doral.
Another defendant, Jaroslav Verner, 32 years old and residing in Alpharetta, Georgia, was arrested at the end of September.
In the case of Karla Lit Peralta, a 26-year-old resident of Miami Gardens, she was charged in the scheme, but her charges were dropped when she became a cooperating witness, according to prosecutors.
Rainier Miguel Salas remains detained at the Turner Guilford Knight (TGK) jail under a bail of $47,500.
The case is still under investigation.
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