Former Cuban Major League Baseball player Yuniesky Betancourt Pérez was arrested along with three other people on charges of insurance fraud in Miami-Dade County.
Florida Department of Financial Services investigators were behind the arrests.
Betancourt, 42, is accused of simulating, in complicity with Maura Pérez, Nancy Mercedes Peña and Abel Vera, a car accident to collect insurance premiums, a type of scam common in South Florida.
Betancourt and the other suspects are accused of improperly claiming personal injury benefits from insurer Kemper Insurance, a Chicago-based insurance company.
The scam he is accused of participating in paid out $61,000, authorities said.
According to the statement from the State’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Jimmy Patronis, the suspects carefully orchestrated the incident, submitting false reports to the police and the insurance company.
“No matter how clever they think their plans are, if they commit fraud in Florida, they will be caught and brought to justice,” Patronis emphasized.
“Staging accidents is incredibly dangerous and this type of fraud costs every Floridian in the form of higher insurance premiums. We must continue to work together to uncover these fraud schemes and bring these scammers to justice,” he added.
A thorough investigation by the Division of Investigative and Forensic Services (DIFS) revealed that the accident never occurred, despite alleged injury claims and subsequent medical treatments.
The four defendants were arrested on April 12, 2024 and face charges of staged accident, insurance fraud, organized fraud scheme and grand theft.
If found guilty, they could face up to 10 years in prison.
According to court records, Betancourt is being represented by the Miami-Dade Public Defender’s Office.
The player was released from jail last Saturday, one day after his arrest, after paying $4,500 bail, those records show.
Yuniesky played four seasons in Cuban baseball, being part of the Villa Clara team. In that period he played 346 games, in which he had an offensive line of .281 / .319 / .436 with 333 hits, including 26 homers.
In January 2003 he left the country and settled in Mexico until two years later he reached an agreement with the Seattle Mariners.
Betancourt played for nine seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States.
He played for the Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers.
He accumulated 4,052 at-bats in such a demanding circuit, achieving a historical average of .261, with 80 home runs and 457 RBIs.
According to Baseball Reference, he earned more than $15.7 million throughout his major league career.
The man from Villa Clara also participated in NPB and the Mexican Baseball League.
He last played in the majors in 2013 and finished his professional career in Japan in 2014.
In 2019 he became the first former MLB player to return to the Cuban national baseball system after leaving the country.
