Fake nursing diploma scheme in Florida; 25 arrested
MIAMI (AP) — Federal authorities in Florida have charged 25 people with participating...
Federal agents on Wednesday arrested about 25 suspects 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.
A 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 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, authorities said.
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.
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. 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 those people may lose their certification but likely won't be criminally charged, federal officials said. Chad Yarbrough, the FBI’s acting special agent in charge in Miami, said the agency has notified nursing boards in all 50 states of every student who obtained a fake nursing degree and passed the exam
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