Federal officials conducted a sting and busted 25 suspected scammers who participated in a massive wire fraud scheme where they sold thousands of fake nursing degrees to individuals looking to purchase diplomas — without actually completing a proper nursing program.
On Wednesday, Jan. 25, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe held a news conference to expose the crime, sharing that over 7,600 fraudulent nursing degrees from three different Florida-based nursing schools were sold, NPR reports.
According to the Justice Department, defendants Stanton Witherspoon and Alfred Sellu, both of Burlington County, New Jersey, and Rene Bernadel of Westchester County, New York, “solicited and recruited” people seeking nursing credentials, according to CBS News. Reports also indicate the trio coordinated with Eunide Sanon of Siena College “to create and distribute false and fraudulent diplomas and transcripts.”
“Witherspoon, Sellu, and Bernadel solicited and recruited individuals who sought nursing credentials to gain employment as an RN or LPN/VN,” the DOJ alleges, adding the indictment alleges “these defendants arranged with Sanon, who managed Siena College and is charged by information with wire fraud conspiracy, to create and distribute false and fraudulent diplomas and transcripts.”
The agency said in charging documents that more than a dozen individuals face charges of conspiring to commit and committing wire fraud.
Reportedly a number of individuals from Florida’s Haitian population provided employers and accreditation organizations with the fabricated paperwork to obtain jobs as registered nurses and licensed practical/vocational nurses and also to get the licenses for those positions issued to them.
Those who paid for the diplomas and/or transcripts were able to use them as they took the national nursing board exam in multiple states, including Florida, New York, New Jersey and Texas,…
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