DIF Arrests Miami-Dade Staged Accident Organizer

Ismael Govea Morales was detained and arrested in Miami-Dade County for organizing two staged accidents, the Division of Insurance Fraud (DIF) reported. He was booked at the county jail in Miami in November.

DIF’s investigation found that the 49-year old recruited participants for two staged accidents occurring in June and August of 2012. Participants in the scheme were referred to clinics in Miami including Beyond Care Corp, Med Life Medical Services, Union Medical Center, Cedar Valley Medical Group, Intensive Therapy and MS Medical Rehab Corp.

The clinics then billed six different insurance carriers—Geico, Kingsway Amigo, Progressive, State Farm, United Auto, and York Services—totaling more than $167,000 in fraudulent charges as a result.

In addition, 76-year old Manuel Alvarez, one of the participants in the June 2012 fake crash, was arrested in November.

This isn’t the first time Govea has been involved in a fraudulent scheme. In January 2013, DIF arrested him on charges of insurance fraud, grand theft, money laundering, organized scheme to defraud, and making false entries on books of corporation.

At that time, Govea was charged with a total of 363 counts for his role in a sophisticated insurance fraud scheme that involved a clinic in Hialeah. Unbeknownst to the true owners of this clinic, Prudential Diagnostic Center, Govea added his name as an officer to the corporation in 2011. The clinic incorporated in 2008, but later closed in 2009.

Govea used Prudential Diagnostic Center as the conduit for defrauding insurance carriers of more than $726,000 in fraudulent billings, according to DIF. He opened a mail drop to collect insurance checks, and between January and June of 2011, Govea allegedly used the corporation to submit billings to 27 different insurance carriers for MRI services that never took place, resulting in nearly $440,000 in payments.

At first, Govea cashed about $44,000 worth of checks through a bank account he opened under the corporation name, but later switched to a check cashing store in Coral Gables to cash the vast majority of the checks.