Fed crackdown on Florida nursing school ‘diploma mills’ leads to 3 guilty pleas
Three former operators of South Florida nursing schools pleaded guilty this week to selling fake diplomas for millions of dollars to students looking for a shortcut to become licensed nurses in hospitals across the country.
Their pleas on Monday in Fort Lauderdale federal court to wire-fraud conspiracies mark the latest developments in a three-year federal crackdown on about 50 private nursing school owners and associates in South Florida, with only two remaining as defendants facing trial in 2026.
The three defendants are: Victor Escalante Zerpa, former manager of Academus University in Coral Gables, who pocketed $9.5 million in illicit payments; Lemuel Pierre, ex-owner of Med-Life Institute in Lauderdale Lakes, Kissimmee and Naples, who raked in $9.1 million; and Irene Matthews, former manager of Agape Academy of Sciences in Delray Beach, who collected $1.5 million in illegal profits.
The three defendants face prison time and will be ordered to pay the U.S. government millions of dollars in penalties at their sentencings next year, according to federal prosecutor Christopher Clark.
15K phony diplomas
In total, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has prosecuted an array of South Florida nursing school operators for selling about 15,000 phony diplomas to students who paid more than $220 million for their bogus degrees and transcripts, federal authorities say. All the students purchased their fake diplomas for $10,000 to $20,000 each.
With coaching from instructors, many students later passed state board exams and obtained registered nursing and licensed practical nursing jobs at hospitals in Florida, New York and Texas, among other states.
Earlier this month, a former administrator at a South Florida nursing school was found guilty on charges of collaborating with the owner and recruiters in selling about 1,000 fake diplomas for millions of dollars to students recruited from Texas.
Stephanie Dorisca, the ex-director of nursing at Techni-Pro Institute in Boca Raton, was convicted of conspiring to commit wire fraud and five related charges after a three-day jury trial in Fort Lauderdale federal court. Dorisca, of Coral Springs, faces up to 20 years in prison.
Read More: South Florida nursing director found guilty for selling nearly 1,000 fake diplomas
Still awaiting trial in March: Dorisca’s former boss, Gilbert Hyppolite, the ex-owner of the now-defunct Techni-Pro nursing school.
Also facing trial in February: Carleen Noreus, the former owner of now-shuttered Carleen Home Health School in Plantation and Carleen Home Health School II in West Palm Beach. She is charged with selling fake diplomas and transcripts to a nurse and others in a conspiracy, wire fraud and money-laundering case.
Patient’s death
But there’s a dramatic twist to Noreus’ case: Clark, the prosecutor, has alleged she sold a phony associate’s degree in nursing to a student who only took a few classes part-time instead of completing her two-year program. She then, after passing her licensing exam, worked as a traveling registered nurse and “contributed” to the death of a patient at a Missouri hospital in 2023.
Clark plans to present evidence in her case that she sold the bogus school documents to the nurse implicated in the patient’s death, including calling a supervisor at the St. Louis hospital to testify as a witness.
READ MORE: Florida operator accused of selling fake degree to nurse implicated in patient death
In court papers, he argued that proper medical training is critical to patient safety, noting that the nurse lied about attending Noreus’ school for two years and then used her fake degree and transcripts to obtain a job at the hospital under “false pretenses.”
Noreus’ defense attorney, Andrew Feldman, strongly disagreed, saying his client is innocent and that the evidence of the patient’s death should be excluded from her criminal case.
The federal investigation into corrupt nursing schools, 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 who collaborated with the operators of Siena College of Health in Lauderhill and Palm Beach School of Nursing in Lake Worth to sell fraudulent diplomas and college transcripts, according to court records.
READ MORE: Prosecutors call Florida nursing school ‘fraud’ ring that handed out fake degrees
The crackdown on more than 20 nursing schools in South Florida rattled the healthcare industry both here and across the country, as agents with the FBI and Health and Human Services alerted state licensing boards about the nurses who illicitly obtained their credentials.
