A former professional baseball participant has been arrested and charged with insurance coverage fraud.

Yuniesky Betancourt, a former shortstop for the Milwaukee Brewers, was one in every of 4 folks arrested and charged within the case in Florida’s Miami-Dade County.

Betancourt, who’s being represented by the general public defender’s workplace, is at the moment free on bond.

“It doesn’t matter how intelligent you assume your scheme could also be, if you happen to commit fraud in Florida, you’ll be caught and dropped at justice,” mentioned Florida Chief Monetary Officer Jimmy Patronis. “Staging accidents is extremely harmful, and fraud like this prices each Floridian within the type of greater auto insurance coverage premiums. We should proceed to work collectively to do all the things we are able to to uncover these fraud schemes and produce these rip-off artists to justice.”

In accordance with DFS investigators, Betancourt – together with alleged accomplices Abel Vera, Nancy Mercedes Pena, and Maura Perez – staged a crash in Miami in December of 2022. After reporting the accident to the police and the auto’s insurer, Kemper Insurance coverage, the 4 allegedly sought remedy and bodily remedy for accidents they didn’t really maintain.

Kemper Insurance coverage was billed greater than $61,000 and paid out greater than $22,800 for remedy, to which not one of the 4 have been entitled, the DFS mentioned.

After performing an accident reconstruction and gathering knowledge from a car occasion knowledge recorder, investigators concluded that the accident by no means occurred as reported to the police and Kemper Insurance coverage, the DFS mentioned.

If convicted on all prices, every of the 4 alleged conspirators might serve as much as 10 years in jail, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Along with the Milwaukee Brewers, Betancourt performed for the Kansas Metropolis Royals and the Seattle Mariners. He spent 9 seasons within the main leagues and made nearly $16 million in profession earnings, in line with the Journal Sentinel.

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