MIAMI – Just one day after state investigators made a fifth known arrest in a case involving hundreds of “subverted” insurance agent licensing exams centering around a business near the Miami airport, two more arrests followed.
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On Wednesday, investigators with the Florida Department of Financial Services arrested insurance agents Darwin Jose Ayala, 39, of Doral, and Zurisadairis Salazar Salazar, 36, of Miramar, on a half-dozen felony charges each — including racketeering.
Authorities arrested Diana Nodarse Cruz, 36, of Miami Lakes, on racketeering and other charges on Tuesday.
They previously arrested Nodarse’s husband, Rainier Miguel Salas, 59, and his son, Rainier Alexander Salas, 27, both of Miami, along with Karla Lit Peralta, 26, of Miami Gardens, and Jaroslav Verner, 32, of Alpharetta, Georgia.
Prosecutors later dropped charges against Peralta and said she became a cooperating witness.
The case centers around a testing enterprise at D&R Academy, which authorities said was run by Nodarse and the elder Salas out of an office building at 6405 NW 36th St. in Virginia Gardens. People would pay the business $400 to $2,000 to fraudulently obtain licenses through 820 “subverted” exams, investigators said.
According to arrest reports, both Ayala and Salazar illegally obtained their insurance licenses through the scheme.
Ayala, authorities said, worked with a man named Nelson Erwin Delpiani, who took the test for Ayala, sister Ana Milena Ayala and Ayala’s recruit, Maryuri Frontado.
No court cases or charges were listed online for Erwin or Ana Milena Ayala as of Thursday morning. An arrest report lists Frontado as a cooperating witness.
Erwin, authorities said, went to Ayala’s home and “sat next to him out of the view of the computer’s camera, and the online proctor directed him to face forward, look at the screen, and not move. Erwin attached a Bluetooth wireless mouse and remotely completed the exam for Ayala.”
Authorities said Erwin would later do the same for Frontado after Ayala recruited her. Ayala formed “his own illicit insurance sales team” and worked for Quintero & Associates, based at 3191 Coral Way in Miami, where Ayala was arrested Wednesday, an arrest report stated.
Local 10 News has contacted Quintero & Associates seeking comment on the arrest and has not heard back as of publication of this article.
Meanwhile, Salazar is accused of acting as an insurance agent within the elder Salas’ group and managed a team of sub-agents, facilitating their acquisition of fraudulent licenses through the illicit enterprise.
Authorities said she coordinated with Nodarse and the elder Salas in the scheme.
Investigators have said that Salas, a convicted felon, wasn’t legally allowed to be an insurance agent in the first place.
Ayala and Salazar were each being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Thursday on charges of racketeering, organized scheme to defraud, communications fraud, acting as an insurance agent without a license, unlawful use of a communications device and representing or aiding an unauthorized insurer.
Ayala is facing two additional misdemeanor counts of providing false information to law enforcement after investigators said he claimed to have worked alone and obtained his license legally, but later fessed up to his role in the scheme.
Ayala’s bond was set at $21,000, while Salazar’s bond was set at $20,000.