Dade School Employees Accused Of Defrauding District
MIAMI (CBS4) – Two Miami-Dade public school employees were arrested for allegedly defrauding the county's medical insurance plan.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle joined School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and School Police Chief Charles Hurley and Captain Steven Smith of Division of Insurance Fraud in announcing the arrests of Miami-Dade Schools bus driver Cynthia DeSilva and school employee Maria Mendez.
Prosecutors say the DeSilva would convince other bus drivers to give their insurance information to a clinic in exchange for $400. The clinic then allegedly billed the school system's self-insured health policy for services never performed.
A multi-agency investigation targeted the clinic's owner, Yasiel Reyes, 22, was also arrested and charged with multiple counts of patient brokering.
"If somebody, employee or not, is caught doing something like this, we're not going to put you on administrative leave. We're going to fire you. We're going to fire you on the spot," said Carvalho. "And we will spare no expense, in identifying every single person responsible for these deeds."
The school system believes they lost more than a million dollars because of the fraud.
"We fight like hell to balance our budget, and for this to happen is a complete slap in our face," said Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Charles Hurley.
Additional arrests are expected.
