Three South Florida nursing schools have been caught selling thousands of fake diplomas in a massive scheme that allowed students to bypass licensing training.
Siena College, the Palm Beach School of Nursing, and Sacred Heart International Institute have lost their accreditation as nursing schools after federal authorities found that they issued more than 7,600 fake and unearned diplomas.
Students were then able to use those bogus diplomas to take the national nursing licensing exam, and land jobs as registered nurses, practical nurses, and vocational nurses in assisted living facilities and Veteran Affairs hospitals throughout the country.
Federal prosecutors have now charged 25 people with wire fraud for the scheme in which they allegedly sold ‘fraudulent nursing degree diplomas and transcripts obtained from accredited Florida-based nursing schools.’
They each face up to 20 years in prison.