Operation Nightingale: Are Thousands of Active Nurses Fake?
From 2017 until 2022, over seven thousand people knowingly purchased fake nursing degrees and transcripts from several online schools. Those nursing transcripts turned into jobs.
Nov 30, 2024
A hospital due diligence disaster is unfolding.
Warning: That dancing nurse pushing vaccines and risky medicine on you may not be legit.
From 2017 until 2022, over seven thousand people knowingly purchased fake nursing degrees and transcripts from several online schools. Many of those fake degrees and transcripts were used to obtain nursing licenses across the country. Those nursing licenses turned into jobs.
The three ‘schools’ have allegedly been shut down. In January the Department of Justice announced charges against 25 individuals operating the scheme to provide the fake documents for fees upwards of $15,000 each. The results? An alleged 114 million dollar conspiracy which was devastating to the nursing industry.
The schools in question were spread across multiple states. They were:
Siena College
Palm Beach School of Nursing
Sacred Heart International Institute
According to court documents these fraudulent degrees allowed the purchasers or co-conspirators to violate laws related to minimum training requirements for nurses. Bypassing training with forged documents allowed the fake nurses to skip training and apply for licenses in multiple states.
Why is the DOJ covering for criminals (again)?
Many of these degrees were used to obtain nursing licenses. How many? We’re not sure. The nurses identified are not being exposed and their hospitals are not being exposed either. For example, according to the Kentucky Board of Nursing, only ONE nurse obtained a license in the state using fake credentials, and even when identified, the board could do nothing until a hearing was held. As WHAS11 reports:
“General Counsel to the Kentucky Board of Nursing Jeffrey Prather confirms outside of an emergency suspension using evidence of an immediate threat or harm to the public, the board cannot suspend a license until there is a hearing. He said the investigation is on-going.”
According to Facebook blogger “Nurse Erica”, the news was devastating to her industry. As stated on her Facebook video post she made on the topic “The individual states could prosecute the fake nurses. Do I think they’re going to? Probably not! Because that in turn means that the hospitals hold accountability because they did not ensure the licensure and we all know corruption abounds and they’re not going to let the hospitals take the fall for this, right?”
Erica followed up by stating “Make no mistake, it is absolutely illegal to impersonate a medical professional. For anyone suggesting that the fake nurses are somehow victims in this, STOP. There’s no way that they thought they were paying for nursing school. They knew when they didn’t go to classes and they were handed fake transcripts…come on. They are not victims, they are criminals and they all need to be charged.”
“This is probably one of the most brazen schemes that I’ve seen. And it does shock the mind,”
Omar Perez Aybar, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), via ABC News
An Industry In Crisis
The nursing industry has been under scrutiny for complying without question to vaccine mandates, attacking nurses who speak out about vaccine coercion, and revelations of HIPAA violations by nurses who went into social media platforms and bragged about improper care of patients and sharing images of patients without consent. The result has been a hiring squeeze made worse by hospitals firing good nurses who refused to comply with mandates. Now we find out these same hospitals may have hired nurses without proper background checks.
It makes you wonder, are hospitals more interested in how well the nurses dance over medical qualifications? Why aren’t we being told who these degrees were sold to?
In this case, Stanton Witherspoon was charged and found guilty of wire fraud in connection with the fake degrees. According to Smart News Liberia:
Stanton A. Witherspoon, the owner and Chief Executive Officer of the pro-Joseph Boskai-run Spoon Media Network in Monrovia, is set to surrender himself to prison authorities in the US to begin serving his term for fraud and other criminal offenses against the United States.
According to court documents, Stanton will go to jail on April 29, 2024. He had been sentenced to 41 months in prison for wire fraud, starting from January 31, 2024. In addition to the prison sentence, Stanton is also forfeiting four properties and fined US$3.5 million.
Recently, the US Southern Florida Court granted Stanton Witherspoon’s request to extend his surrender date by 90 days. The United States District Court, Southern District of Florida, accepted his motion, allowing him to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons in the US no later than 12:00 PM on April 29, 2024, for sentencing. This decision was reached on January 16, 2024.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Markenzy Lapointe, stated that “a fraud scheme like this erodes public trust in our health care system.” Following the court’s ruling, Stanton Witherspoon filed a motion for miscellaneous relief, which was granted by Judge Malissa Damian on January 12, 2023.
In the case of Nadege Auguste, she was convicted of multiple counts involved in the fraudulent scheme as well. According to this document, she has appealed to the US Supreme Court for relief.
According to the DOJ these are the guilty pleas and convictions from the investigation.
Defendants Associated with Fraudulent Nursing Diplomas and Transcripts from Siena College –
Stanton Witherspoon, of Burlington County, New Jersey (N.J.), pled guilty on August 24, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60005-Cr-Smith). Witherspoon is scheduled to be sentenced on November 2, 2023.
Alfred Sellu, of Burlington County, N.J., pled guilty on August 18, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60005-Cr-Smith). Sellu is scheduled to be sentenced on November 2, 2023.
Rene Bernadel, of Westchester County, New York (N.Y.), pled guilty on August 24, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60005-Cr-Smith). Bernadel is scheduled to be sentenced on November 2, 2023.
Eunide Sanon, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., pled guilty on March 14, 2023, to an information charging her with conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60013-Cr-Moreno). Sanon was sentenced on May 23, 2023, to 27 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $1,287,633.
Defendants Associated with Fraudulent Nursing Diplomas and Transcripts from Palm Beach School of Nursing –
Krystal Lopez, of Palm Beach County, Fla., pled guilty on May 10, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60007-Cr-Singhal). Krystal Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced on December 14, 2023.
Damian Lopez, of Palm Beach County, Fla., pled guilty on May 10, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60007-Cr-Singhal). Damian Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced on December 14, 2023.
Francois Legagneur, of Nassau County, N.Y., pled guilty on May 10, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60007-Cr-Singhal). Legagneur is scheduled to be sentenced on December 13, 2023.
Reynoso Seide, of Union County, N.J., pled guilty on May 10, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60007-Cr-Singhal). On September 19, 2023, Seide was sentenced to 24 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Yelva Saint Preux, of Suffolk County, N.Y., pled guilty on May 10, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60007-Cr-Singhal). Preux is scheduled to be sentenced on December 14, 2023.
Palm Beach School of Nursing’s owner Johanah Napoleon pled guilty, on November 21, 2022, to wire fraud (Case No 22-60111-Cr-Smith) and conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 22-60118-Cr-Smith). Napoleon was sentenced on July 18, 2023, to 21 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $3.2 million.
Defendants Associated with Fraudulent Nursing Diplomas and Transcripts from Sacred Heart International Institute –
Rhomy Louis, of Suffolk County, N.Y., pled guilty on September 15, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60010-Cr-Smith). Louis is scheduled to be sentenced on November 28, 2023.
Simon Itaman, of Harris County, Texas (TX), pled guilty on September 15, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60010-Cr-Smith). Simon Itaman is scheduled to be sentenced on November 28, 2023.
Anna Itaman, of Harris County, TX, pled guilty on September 15, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60010-Cr-Smith). Anna Itaman is scheduled to be sentenced on November 28, 2023.
Serge Jean, of Harris County, TX, pled guilty on September 15, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60010-Cr-Smith). Serge Jean is scheduled to be sentenced on November 28, 2023.
Ludnie Jean, of Harris County, TX, pled guilty on September 15, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60010-Cr-Smith). Ludnie Jean is scheduled to be sentenced on November 28, 2023.
Cimoyne Alves, of Lincoln, Rhode Island, pled guilty on August 18, 2023, to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-6006-Cr-Smith). Alves is scheduled to be sentenced on October 30, 2023.
Charles Etienne, of Lake Worth, Fla., pled guilty on April 11, 2023, to an information charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Case No. 23-60012-Cr-Singhal). Etienne is scheduled to be sentenced on November 2, 2023.
Nadege Auguste, of Coral Springs, Fla., was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on September 28, 2023. Auguste is scheduled to be sentenced on January 3, 2024.
Defendants Associated with Fraudulent Nursing Diplomas and Transcripts through PowerfulU Healthcare Services LLC -
Geralda Adrien, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud (Case No. 21-60198-Cr-WPD) and was sentenced on August 10, 2022, to 27 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $3,309,000.
Woosevelt Predestin, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and was sentenced on August 10, 2022, to 27 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit $3,309,000 (Case No. 21-60198-Cr-WPD).
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe; Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey B. Veltri, FBI, Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Omar Pérez Aybar, HHS-OIG, made the announcement.
The real question now is, where are all these fake nurses? Are they in your hospital?
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A very small ( THE smallest) state ,north of New Jersey is kindve famous for licensing lapsed-licence " medical professionals "; unfortunately, it's also THE most corrupt " biggest little blackhole in the universe"&, I have to live there so, 'a friend told me not to name it'.Avoid at all costs, "ye who enter here"...
Why has this not been in the “ news” ?
A very small ( THE smallest) state ,north of New Jersey is kindve famous for licensing lapsed-licence " medical professionals "; unfortunately, it's also THE most corrupt " biggest little blackhole in the universe"&, I have to live there so, 'a friend told me not to name it'.Avoid at all costs, "ye who enter here"...