Florida nursing schools are caught selling 7,600 fake diplomas in fraud scheme trends now
Three South Florida nursing schools have been caught selling thousands of fake diplomas in a massive scheme that allowed students to bypass licensing training.
Siena College, the Palm Beach School of Nursing and Sacred Heart International Institute have lost their accreditation as nursing schools after federal authorities found that thy issued more than 7,600 fake and unearned diplomas.
Students were then able to use those bogus diplomas to take the national nursing licensing exam, and land jobs as registered nurses, practical nurses and vocational nurses in assisted living facilities and Veteran Affairs hospitals throughout the country.
Federal prosecutors have now charged 25 people with wire fraud for the scheme in which they allegedly sold 'fraudulent nursing degree diplomas and transcripts obtained from accredited Florida-based nursing schools.'
They each face up to 20 years in prison.
Southern Florida nursing schools like the Palm Beach School of Nursing were found to have distributed thousands of fake diplomas
Federal prosecutors say that between 2016 to 2021, the Palm Beach School of Nursing, Sacred Heart International Institute and Siena College handed out more than 7,600 fraudulent diplomas and transcripts, saying students completed coursework and clinicals when they did not. These students would then go on to get jobs at facilities across the country
Three recently unsealed indictments handed down by a South Florida grand jury, as well as two other charging documents filed by federal prosecutors, detail how recruiters and school officials coordinated to hand out these fake diplomas from 2016 through 2021.
Prosecutors say the more than 7,600 buyers would receive official papers saying they attended the nursing program at these Florida-accredited schools, and completed all of their courses and clinicals — when in fact they did not.
Using those documents, the buyers were able to use the documents to take the official nursing licensing exam, with many going on to work at facilities in Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Georgia, Maryland and Tennessee.
Many of those charged in the scheme are from out-of-state, with many defendants from the New York and New Jersey areas.
Among them are Burlington County, New Jersey residents
