A former Hialeah firefighter was arrested after authorities said he raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling American Heart Association certificates to recipients who hadn't been trained.
Carlos Ernesto Rojas, 60, was arrested on an organized scheme to defraud charge, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office said Friday.
Rojas, a retired City of Hialeah firefighter with 20 years’ experience with the department, allegedly issued over 14,500 certificates on behalf of the AHA throughout 2021, charging $60 per card, prosecutors said.
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He may have taken in over $870,000 during that time period, prosecutors said.
Rojas possessed AHA instructor certifications in a number of life-saving areas, including basic life support and pediatric advance life support.
The investigation began after 14 people who were offered employment or promotion by Jackson Health Systems contacted Rojas seeking training.
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Those individuals alleged that they paid Rojas a total of $1,140.00 for the necessary courses and had expected to receive training, but no training occurred, prosecutors said.
Instead, they allegedly received electronic records from Rojas indicating that they participated in or successfully completed a course, authorities said.
After the allegations were made, an undercover officer contacted Rojas and obtained basic life support certification without any training from him in exchange for $60, officials said.
The investigation is ongoing and more charges could be filed, authorities said.
"Falsification of any certification always has the potential of placing people in danger. However, falsifications of training in life-saving techniques creates an obvious risk if a life-or-death situation arises, something these certifications were intended to avoid," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "I applaud the work of the Miami-Dade Police Department in ending this almost invisible danger and know that my prosecutors will quickly bring this case before the judges of our criminal courts."
