Three face trial on charges of selling fake nursing school diplomas in South Florida

A South Florida nursing school network accused of selling thousands of bogus transcripts and diplomas for millions of dollars has led to the convictions of 20 business executives, employees and associates almost entirely by plea deals.

But on Wednesday, three defendants implicated in the network — including Gail Russ, the former director of student services and registrar at the Palm Beach School of Nursing — will face a jury trial in Fort Lauderdale federal court on a slew of conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Russ’s former boss at the nursing school, who already pleaded guilty, is expected to testify as a government witness against the defendant.

The other two defendants standing trial are Cassandre Jean and Vilaire Duroseau, who are accused of working as recruiters to lure nursing students to the school to obtain phony degrees.

Both sides will deliver opening statements on Wednesday, followed by the prosecution’s presentation of evidence.

The process of selecting 12 jurors before U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal took all day Tuesday, partly because of contentious debate over picking certain Black jurors for a healthcare fraud trial that has shaken the Haitian-American community. Many of the defendants charged in various cases and many of the students who obtained phony diplomas from the three South Florida nursing schools are Haitian American, according to federal prosecutors.

At the beginning of this year, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami rattled the healthcare industry and Haitian-American community when they unveiled a batch of criminal cases charging about 25 defendants who had ownership interests in or worked as employees and recruiters for Palm Beach School of Nursing in Lake Worth, Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale and Siena College of Health in Lauderhill. While those schools have been closed, the federal crackdown continues and more arrests are expected in connection with the investigation, which began with a tip four years ago.

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 fake diplomas also came with phony transcripts to bolster the “fraudulent” nursing students’ records, federal prosecutor Christopher Clark said in court papers.

In doing so, the scofflaw schools provided a shortcut for students to avoid taking a nearly two-year nursing program requiring clinical work, national exams and certification, while instructors coached them on taking the licensing exams to practice nursing in a number of states, Clark noted in several indictments.

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, U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe said at a news conference earlier this year. Other students were recruited from out of state to participate in the fraudulent nursing programs.

An estimated 7,600 students paid a total of $114 million for bogus nursing degrees from the South Florida schools and other suspect programs between 2016 and 2021. 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 passed the nursing exams have lost their certification — though they won’t be criminally charged, according to federal authorities. At the beginning of the year, the FBI said it notified nursing boards in all 50 states about every student who obtained a fake nursing degree and passed the exam.

The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Miami said that, despite obvious public concern, the investigation has found no harm caused by any suspect nurses to patients so far.

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 two years and three months in prison in 2022. Adrien was ordered to pay about $1.4 million in a forfeiture judgment reflecting her proceeds from the criminal activity, but prosecutors did not pursue a financial penalty against Predestin.

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 in Lauderhill, Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach School of Nursing in Lake Worth “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 mail and wire fraud conspiracy charge, cooperated with authorities and was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison. In addition, Napoleon paid two forfeiture judgments — $250,000 and $3.2 million — to the U.S. government, reflecting her proceeds from the criminal activity, court records show.

Napoleon is expected to testify in the trial against Russ, one of her former executives at the Palm Beach School of Nursing.

Other significant convictions include Eunide Sanon, owner of Siena College of Health in Lauderhill, who pleaded guilty to the same conspiracy charge and was sentenced to two years and three months. Sanon also paid about $1.3 million in a forfeiture judgment, records show.

Charles Etienne, the former president of Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale, pleaded guilty to the same charge but received a probationary sentence of five years. Etienne also paid $155,000 in a forfeiture judgment and a $5,500 fine, records show.