Two nursing school operators within the Fort Lauderdale space have fessed up to peddling fake diplomas to thousands of students who may then keep away from finishing a rigorous program sooner than taking licensing checks in what prosecutors say was once a multimillion-dollar racket stretching from South Florida to New York.
Charles Etienne, 60, president of Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale, and Eunide Sanon, 60, proprietor of Siena College of Health in Lauderhill, respectively pleaded guilty on Tuesday and ultimate month to a conspiracy to dedicate mail and cord fraud in federal courtroom.
Both face up to two decades in jail however are anticipated to obtain a lot much less time for accepting duty early on, in accordance to their attorneys, Tama Kudman and Mark Lowry. As phase of their sentencing, Sanon will have to flip over greater than $1 million and Etienne about $200,000 to the U.S. executive.
According to one case, Sanon collaborated with industry friends in Broward County to promote about 2,016 “false and fraudulent diplomas and educational transcripts to” students that “falsely represented” they “had completed the necessary courses and/or clinical training to obtain nursing degrees from Siena.”
According to every other case, Etienne collaborated with the ones friends in Broward to promote about 588 “false and fraudulent diplomas and educational transcripts” beneath the similar instances at Sacred Heart.
In January, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami rattled the healthcare trade once they unveiled those two instances as well as to 3 different indictments charging 23 different individuals who had possession pursuits, labored as staff or performed the jobs of recruiters for the 2 nursing faculties in addition to a 3rd program, Palm Beach School of Nursing.
The community of nursing school operators, focused in South Florida, illegally charged each and every scholar between $10,000 for an authorized sensible nurse level and $17,000 for a registered nurse degree — with out requiring correct coaching, in accordance to federal government and courtroom data.
The scofflaw faculties supplied a “shortcut” for students to keep away from taking a just about two-year nursing program requiring medical paintings, nationwide checks and certification, whilst instructors coached them on taking the licensing checks to follow nursing in a host of states, government mentioned.
An estimated 7,600 students paid a complete of $114 million for phony nursing levels from the South Florida faculties and different suspect systems between 2016 and 2021. Of the ones, one-third, or about 2,400 students, ended up passing their licensing checks, basically in New York, which imposes no restrict at the quantity of occasions that students can take the examination. Nurses qualified in New York find a way to follow in different states, together with Florida.
Now, the ones students who handed the nursing checks might lose their certification — despite the fact that they gained’t be criminally charged, in accordance to federal government. The FBI mentioned it has notified nursing forums in all 50 states of each and every scholar who got a fake nursing level and handed the examination.
Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General in Miami, mentioned that, regardless of obtrusive public fear, the investigation has discovered no hurt led to by means of any suspect nurses to sufferers thus far.
The investigation, aptly dubbed Operation Nightingale, started in 2019 with a tip from Maryland that led to an FBI undercover operation that to start with centered two Fort Lauderdale industry folks, Geralda Adrien and Woosvelt Predestin, who each pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to dedicate mail and cord fraud. They cooperated with government and have been sentenced to greater than two years and 3 months in jail in 2022.
Adrien owned two non-public training firms, Docu-Flex & More and PowerfulU Health Care Services, the place Predestin was once an worker. Together they schemed with Siena College of Health in Lauderhill, Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach School of Nursing in Lake Worth “to sell fraudulent diplomas and college transcripts,” in accordance to courtroom data.
Also to start with centered: The Palm Beach School of Nursing’s president, Johanah Napoleon of West Palm Beach, who pleaded guilty to the similar conspiracy fee, cooperated with government and faces sentencing subsequent Tuesday.
All 3 defendants reached plea agreements with Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Clark and helped investigators broaden the larger case, leading to about 25 arrests in January. More arrests are anticipated within the coming months, government mentioned.