As part of a years-long investigation into a wide-ranging nursing scam involving – at the latest count – about 7 300 fake diplomas, federal prosecutors in Florida, the United States, have announced new charges against a dozen more defendants.
Medpage Today reports that the investigation, dubbed “Operation Nightingale”, focused on a number of people selling fraudulent nursing diplomas and transcripts from multiple for-profit nursing schools, all of which are now closed.
“The charges highlight the purpose of a professional nursing licensure: protecting the public from harm by ensuring that only qualified and competent practitioners provide nursing care,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said.
In the first phase of the investigation, 30 defendants were charged and convicted in 2023. In total, the scammers sold 7 300 fake nursing diplomas.
A network of nursing school operators and recruiters charged thousands of “students” around $10 000 to $20 000 for fake academic credentials.
Using sham diplomas and transcripts, buyers could take the national nursing board exam. Those who passed received nursing licenses that enabled them to obtain employment as registered nurses (RNs) and licensed vocational or licensed practical nurses (LVNs/LPNs) from unwitting healthcare facilities countrywide, prosecutors said.
The scheme was hatched in Florida around April 2016 and continued until July 2021.
In the wake of the new charges, the Florida Nurses Association (FNA) has called for stricter laws around private nursing schools.
The 12 new defendants in phase two of the investigation include a former registered agent for a number of training institutes, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and was sentenced to 13 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release; a former president of home-health training programmes, who was charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit both; and a former owner, registered agent, and manager of a healthcare institute, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Another nine people were also charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Defendants face a maximum of 20 years in prison for such charges.
Medpage Today article – More Charged in Massive Nursing Scam (Open access)
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