By Shannon Firth

Following a 3-week trial, three key players have been convicted by a federal jury in South Florida for their role in a scheme to sell fake diplomas that provided a shortcut to licensure for aspiring nurses, federal prosecutors announced late last week.

After an investigation dubbed "Operation Nightingale" in honor of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, the three -- Gail Russ, a former registrar of the Palm Beach School of Nursing in Lake Worth, Florida; Cassandre Jean, RN, a recruiter who ran Success Nursing Review in New York City; and Vilaire Duroseau, a recruiter who owned the Center for Advanced Training and Studies in West Orange, New Jersey -- were found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges by a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Russ, Jean, and Duroseau were charged, alongside 11 co-defendants, in a scam that centered around selling fraudulent nursing diplomas and transcripts from private nursing schools that have been shut down, according to the the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.

Under the scheme, a network of nursing school operators and recruiters charged each "student" approximately $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 jobs as registered nurses (RNs) and licensed vocational or licensed practical nurses (LVN/LPNs) from "unwitting" healthcare facilities all across the country, the press release noted.

According to the indictment, the scheme was hatched in Florida sometime around April 2016 and continued roughly into July 2021. In all, across three nursing schools, more than 7,600 nursing diplomas were sold, for a total of more than $114 million.

The other schools involved in the litigation are the Sacred Heart Institute in Fort Lauderdale and Siena College of Health in Lauderhill.

Russ, Jean, and Duroseau were convicted of conspiring to commit wire fraud and several additional wire fraud charges, the maximum sentence for which is 20 years in prison.

In total, 27 defendants have been charged and convicted in 2023 for their role in the "diploma mill" scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

"As nurses, we are incredibly disappointed that there would be people who want to take a fast track or an easy way into our nursing workforce," said Rayna Letourneau, PhD, RN, executive director of the Florida Center for Nursing. "Yes, we want to have more nurses in our workforce to be able to meet the demand and provide healthcare to people, but we cannot have more nurses that are not qualified.... It's not safe."

When schemes like this occur, it hurts public trust in nurses, said Letourneau. While a recent Gallup poll or window found that nurses are still the "most trusted profession," Letourneau noted that this comparative good news belies the fact that the trust levels are the lowest they've been since 2004, which she called "very concerning."

"Are we not going to be number one anymore? Are people losing their trust in nurses?" she asked. "It's something that we'll have to continue to monitor."

Asked how regulators might prevent another Operation Nightingale, Letourneau said she believes giving state boards of nursing more oversight authority would help.

If Florida's Board of Nursing was doing site visits, "they may have seen that there really wasn't a true school of nursing or the appropriate equipment that would be able to adequately prepare candidates to graduate and sit for the NCLEX," Letourneau said, referring to the National Council Licensure Exam required for nursing licensure in the U.S. and Canada.

During closing arguments in the case on Thursday, U.S. Attorney Jon Juenger, JD, told the jury that the behavior displayed reflects "the absolute corruption of the nursing field by these defendants and others who worked with them,".

Meanwhile, lawyers for the defendants questioned the reliability of the government's key witness, Johanah Napoleon, the former owner of the Palm Beach School of Nursing. Prior to the trial, Napoleon pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and healthcare fraud and received a 21-month prison sentence and a $3.2 million fine.

Napoleon "could sell ice to the Eskimos," said Martin Beguiristain, JD, an attorney representing Duroseau, according to the Herald.

Russ, Jean, and Duroseau will face sentencing on April 2.