Ex-Hialeah firefighter gave CPR certificates but no actual lessons, cops say. His fee: $60

A retired Hialeah firefighter has been accused of selling CPR certifications without actually conducting training for the emergency life-saving procedures.

Carlos Ernesto Rojas, 60, was booked into a Miami-Dade jail on Friday afternoon charged with organized scheme to defraud.

According to police and prosecutors, Rojas was a certified American Heart Association instructor teaching CPR courses, a certification needed by everyone from bus drivers to nurses to child-care workers. In CPR classes, participants are taught to compress the chest and breathe into someone’s mouth to keep the blood flowing if their heart has stopped.

But police say at least 14 people who were offered employment from Jackson Health Systems paid Rojas for basic or advanced CPR classes, “expected to receive training” but instead were simply sent electronic cards “indicating that they participated in or successfully completed a course,” according to a Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office press release.

An undercover Miami-Dade police investigator reached out to Rojas and paid him $60, authorities say. The officer never completed any courses but was nevertheless registered with the American Heart Association as having completed the certification, according to the state.

In all, AHA records showed, Rojas issued over 14,500 certificates over a two-year period, which means he would have earned over $870,000 at that $60 rate, the state 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,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement.

It was unclear Friday afternoon if Rojas had retained a defense attorney.

This story was originally published September 9, 2022 at 3:34 PM.