Florida nursing schools peddled fake degrees. Another wave of defendants plead guilty
Another wave of business operators charged in a South Florida nursing-school racket that authorities say sold thousands of phony diplomas for millions of dollars has cut plea deals rather than go to trial.
On Wednesday, five defendants who worked for the Palm Beach School of Nursing and other businesses pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud in Fort Lauderdale federal court. They were all arrested as part of a take-down in January of 25 suspects who were swept into a major crackdown on South Florida nursing school operators that began with a tip four years ago.
Overall, they are accused of selling fabricated nursing degrees to thousands of students who then used the bogus diplomas to take licensing exams in several states, including Florida, New York, New Jersey and Texas. The network of nursing school operators, centered in South Florida, illegally charged each student between $10,000 for a licensed practical nurse degree and $17,000 for a registered nurse diploma — without requiring proper training, according to federal authorities and court records.
The schools provided a “shortcut” for students to avoid taking a nearly two-year nursing program requiring clinical work, national exams and certification, while instructors prepared them to take the licensing exams to practice nursing in a number of states, authorities said.
Among the five defendants who pleaded guilty Wednesday are: Krystal Lopez, director of finance at Palm Beach School of Nursing in Lake Worth, and her brother, Damian Lopez, who recruited students and provided educational services for nursing exams. Three other defendants, Yelva Saint Preux, Francois Legagneur and Reynoso Seide, based in the Northeast, also provided licensing prep services for students with fake degrees from the Palm Beach School of Nursing and other schools, according to federal prosecutor, Christopher Clark.
All of the defendants face up to 20 years in prison at their sentencing hearings this summer before U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, but they are expected to receive less than the maximum because they accepted responsibility for their crimes. Their punishment will also be influenced by the amount of money each one made off the nursing-school scam.
An estimated 7,600 students paid a total of $114 million for phony nursing degrees from the South Florida schools and other suspect programs between 2016 and 2021, according to the FBI and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Of those, one-third, or about 2,400 students, ended up passing their licensing exams, mainly in New York, which imposes no limit on the number of times that students can take the exam. Nurses certified in New York have the ability to practice in other states, including Florida.
Many of the students who purchased degrees were from South Florida’s Haitian-American community, including some with legitimate LPN licenses who wanted to become registered nurses. Other students were recruited from out of state to participate in the fraudulent nursing programs, authorities said. They could all see their nursing licenses revoked.
The investigation, aptly dubbed Operation Nightingale, began in 2019 with a tip from Maryland that led to an FBI undercover operation that initially targeted two Fort Lauderdale business people, Geralda Adrien and Woosvelt Predestin, who both pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. They cooperated with authorities and were sentenced to more than two years and three months in prison in 2022.
Adrien owned two private education companies, Docu-Flex & More and PowerfulU Health Care Services, where Predestin was an employee. Together they schemed with Siena College of Health/Siena Education Center in Lauderhill and Palm Beach School of Nursing “to sell fraudulent diplomas and college transcripts,” according to court records. Also initially targeted: The Palm Beach School of Nursing’s president, Johanah Napoleon of West Palm Beach, who pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge, cooperated with authorities and is awaiting sentencing.
All three defendants reached plea agreements with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and helped investigators develop the bigger case, including two additional plea deals this spring. Charles Etienne, president of Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale, and Eunide Sanon, owner of Siena College of Health in Lauderhill, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in federal court.
Both face up to 20 years in prison but are expected to receive much less time for accepting responsibility early on. As part of their sentencing, Sanon must turn over about $1.3 million and Etienne about $150,000 to the U.S. government.
This story was originally published May 11, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
