“Operation Never Ends” Leads to Closure of Two Clinics, Multiple Arrests

“Operation Never Ends,” the multi-organizational investigation organized by Miami police, the Secret Service, local and state agencies and insurance companies, has led to the closure of two clinics involved in staging accidents and making fraudulent insurance claims.

The more than one year long operation led to the arrest of, among others, Jorge Felix Felipe Pupo, 49, accused of being the ringleader, and Yanaris Ramirez Paneque, 36, a receptionist at one health clinic, according to authorities.  According to the report from NBC 6:

Police say they went undercover inside a medical building in the 700 block of Northwest 23rd Avenue and at another location near Flagler and the Palmetto Expressway.

Detectives said recruiters would find those willing to participate in the staged accidents, then bring them to medical clinics where paperwork was done to get money back from insurance companies.

Police Sgt. Luis Taborda explained the scheme.

“The clinics are the main,” he said. “They provide the money to a runner and the runner puts together the crash — orchestrates the crash.”

Police said the ring was making big money on the claims.

“I could tell you that in one investigation that we did at the beginning, they were up to $80,000 before we shut them down — in just one crash,” Taborda said.

The article from NBC 6 South Florida is available here.