Operation Nightingale: Florida's 7,600 Fake Nursing Diplomas

Getting to this question means you have put real years into nursing and want that work to count abroad. This page is for nurses who check a school, programme or evaluator before paying anyone.

Operation Nightingale is a US federal fraud case against Florida nursing schools that sold diplomas and transcripts to people who never did the training. On 25 January 2023 the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced charges against 25 people and said the scheme "involved the distribution of more than 7,600 fake nursing diplomas" from three schools: Siena College, Palm Beach School of Nursing and Sacred Heart International Institute (US Attorney's Office, SDFL, 25 January 2023). Buyers used the papers to sit the NCLEX, the US nursing licence exam, and some went on to work as nurses. A second phase followed on 15 September 2025, with charges against 12 more school owners and staff (US Attorney's Office, SDFL, 15 September 2025). State nursing boards have since suspended, revoked or annulled licences linked to these schools.

If you trained outside the US, or you are about to pay for a "bridging" course, an evaluation or a US diploma, read on.

Imagine you are 34. You trained as a nurse at home, in Lagos or Manila or Port-au-Prince, and now you work abroad as a carer because your qualification is not recognised yet. The exams look slow and expensive. Then someone in your community sends a message. There is a nursing school in Florida. You attend one week a month, the rest is online, and in under a year you have a US diploma that lets you sit the NCLEX. The fee is about $15,000. Many people have done it, she says.

It sounds like a smart route. You already know nursing. You would only be skipping the paperwork. This is the offer Operation Nightingale was built on.

Key facts about Operation Nightingale

What was Operation Nightingale?

The DOJ called it "an illegal licensing and employment shortcut for aspiring nurses" (DOJ, 25 January 2023).

In the US, you can sit the NCLEX only after graduating from a nursing programme approved by a state board of nursing. The Florida schools were approved. So their diploma and transcript opened the door to the exam. Pass it, and you could be licensed as a registered nurse (RN) or a licensed practical or vocational nurse (LPN/VN), and get a job.

According to the charging documents, recruiters found people who wanted nursing credentials, then "arranged with" school owners and staff "to create and distribute false and fraudulent diplomas and transcripts." The papers said the buyers had completed "the necessary courses and clinicals." In fact, "the aspiring nurses never completed the necessary courses and clinicals" (DOJ, 25 January 2023).

Clinical training is the hands-on part, with real patients under supervision. Florida requires at least half of a practical or associate nursing programme to be clinical training, the DOJ noted in September 2025. That is the part the buyers skipped.

How was it caught? HHS-OIG special agent in charge Omar Pérez Aybar told ABC News that one alert came from poor pass rates at three schools. He said agents "noticed there were no real courses the individuals took" and that "it was simply a cash mill" (ABC7 New York, 26 January 2023).

The evidence: who was convicted

A charge is an allegation. The people named below are named only where a DOJ release shows a guilty plea, a guilty verdict or a sentence.

Phase I (2022 to 2024)

Palm Beach School of Nursing. The owner, Johanah Napoleon, pleaded guilty on 21 November 2022 to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On 18 July 2023 she was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $3.2 million (US Attorney's Office, SDFL, 28 September 2023). The registrar, Gail Russ, was found guilty after a three-week jury trial. On 2 April 2024 Judge Raag Singhal sentenced her to 78 months and ordered forfeiture of $861,672 (US Attorney's Office, SDFL, 3 April 2024).

The recruiters. At the same trial, Cassandre Jean, owner of Success Nursing Review in Brooklyn, was sentenced to 36 months, a $20,000 fine and forfeiture of $4,698,828. Vilaire Duroseau, owner of a training centre in West Orange, New Jersey, got 33 months (DOJ, 3 April 2024). Recruiter Reynoso Seide was sentenced on 19 September 2023 to 24 months (DOJ, 28 September 2023).

Siena College. Eunide Sanon, who managed the school, was sentenced on 23 May 2023 to 27 months and ordered to forfeit $1,287,633. Three Siena recruiters pleaded guilty in August 2023 (DOJ, 28 September 2023). The Orlando Sentinel reported that one of them, Stanton Witherspoon, helped sell Siena transcripts to hundreds of students, "raking in $3.5 million" (Orlando Sentinel, 8 May 2026).

Sacred Heart International Institute. The owner, Charles Etienne, pleaded guilty on 11 April 2023. Five recruiters from Texas and New York pleaded guilty on 15 September 2023, and one more defendant was found guilty at trial on 28 September 2023 (DOJ, 28 September 2023).

A later DOJ release added a fourth school, Quisqueya School of Nursing, and said the schools closed "due to the excessive failure rates of its students taking the state nursing board exam" (DOJ, 3 April 2024).

The Maryland link

The Florida case ran "in conjunction with a related criminal matter in the District of Maryland" (DOJ, 25 January 2023). Two Maryland releases show the buyer side. Ejike Asiegbunam, a Maryland school owner, was sentenced on 16 September 2024 to 21 months. His plea agreement says he charged buyers "between $15,000 and $22,000," sent student grades to the Palm Beach registrar and got Palm Beach transcripts back, "despite the individuals not attending the school." The school paid him "40 percent of the tuition" per recruit (US Attorney's Office, Maryland, 18 September 2024).

Patrick Nwaokwu was sentenced to 21 months, announced on 24 April 2026. He "generally charged $17,000 for RN degrees and $6,000 to $10,000 for LPN degrees," and told buyers to leave the graduation date blank on their NCLEX applications "so the date could be backdated" to before the school lost its licence (US Attorney's Office, Maryland, 24 April 2026).

Phase II (2025 to 2026)

On 15 September 2025 prosecutors charged 12 people, including "nursing school owners and employees," at schools from Miami to Naples and Orlando. Several offered "RN to BSN" upgrade programmes (DOJ, 15 September 2025). As of 8 November 2026, the record shows:

• Herline Lochard, registered agent or manager of the Center for Professional Training and Development, the Center for Professional Training and Wheatland Institute, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on 31 July 2025 to 13 months (DOJ, 15 September 2025).
• Patrick Buchanan, owner of Sigma Institute of Health Careers, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud (DOJ, 15 September 2025). We did not find his sentence in a DOJ release.
• Joel Lubin, a former administrator of Ideal Professional Institute, pleaded guilty in November 2025 "to selling fraudulent diplomas to students and raking in more than $7 million," the Orlando Sentinel reported (Orlando Sentinel via Governing, 20 January 2026).
• Carleen Noreus, who ran Carleen Home Health School and Carleen Home Health School II, pleaded guilty after a two-week trial to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The DOJ said trial evidence showed she was "responsible for providing 2,956 fraudulent nursing diplomas" between 17 April 2018 and 8 October 2025, and that about 2,274 buyers passed the board exams (US Attorney's Office, SDFL, 18 June 2026). We found no sentence as of 8 November 2026.

The other Phase II defendants were charged. The DOJ states that "all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law." We did not find a public statement from the convicted operators about the case.

The money machine

• The buyer paid "as much as $15,000," officials told ABC News. Maryland plea agreements put RN papers at $17,000 to $22,000.
• The recruiter brought in buyers, sometimes through a "nursing review" business, and took a cut. One received 40% of the tuition per student.
• The school sold official documents. Because it was state approved, its transcript looked real to a nursing board.
• The scale. Single forfeiture orders reached $4.7 million for one recruiter and $3.2 million for one school owner. Officials told ABC News the scheme involved "more than $100 million worth of bogus nursing diplomas and transcripts" (ABC7 New York, 26 January 2023).

Then the buyer paid a second time, with their career.

How did state boards respond?

US nursing licences come from each state, so each board had to find its own nurses.

The national signal. The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) said boards "are taking appropriate action, in accordance with their state laws and due process, that includes loss of license" (NCSBN, 26 January 2023).

The record follows the nurse. The National Practitioner Data Bank, a federal database, told boards that suspensions, surrenders and denials linked to the case are reportable, under the code "Fraud, Deceit or Material Omission in Obtaining License or Credentials," with "Operation Nightingale" written in the report (NPDB, accessed 8 November 2026). A nurse who loses a licence in one state cannot quietly start again in another.

Maryland was told about 287 nurses or applicants. By April 2025 it had found "no cause to take disciplinary action" in 205 of 259 cases reviewed, revoked three nurses' privilege to practise and voted to charge seven others (Maryland Matters, 17 April 2025). Its orders are on the board's Operation Nightingale page.

Delaware publishes an "Operation Nightingale List of Annulled Nursing Licenses" and a list of denied applications, updated 14 May 2025 (Delaware Division of Professional Regulation, 14 May 2025). Some entries are marked "LPN license with 2 years of probation and 3 hours of Ethics CE." Others "completed legitimate education" and are "permitted to test for and be issued a new license."

Washington said it "takes action to rescind licenses or deny applicant licenses" linked to a named list of schools (Washington Board of Nursing, 24 June 2025). North Dakota warned graduates their licence "may be delayed," and that fees "are non-refundable" (North Dakota Board of Nursing, 15 January 2025). North Carolina uses "a multi-layer process for review of applications from these identified programs" (NCBON, 19 September 2025). Texas is "seeking revocation of any licensure obtained through fraudulent means" (Texas Board of Nursing, accessed 8 November 2026).

Florida revoked the licences of 47 nurses who attended schools cited by the FBI but let others keep working, and "has made no public accounting of what it is doing," the Orlando Sentinel found. It now refuses new licences to graduates of the discredited schools. The Florida Department of Health said the board decides "on a case-by-case basis" (Orlando Sentinel, 8 May 2026).

Why did this happen in Florida?

The Orlando Sentinel traced it to a 2009 law that took much of the approval power away from the Board of Nursing. "Within 18 months, more than 60 new nursing schools were approved," and programmes grew "from about 180 to more than 500." Most schools accused by the FBI got approval "shortly after the new law was passed" (Orlando Sentinel via Governing, 20 January 2026).

This matters for you. Every Nightingale school was approved by the state at one time. Approval alone did not prove that teaching happened.

What it means if you trained abroad

Three lessons from the record apply to you, even if you never go near Florida.

1. Passing the exam does not protect a bought qualification. The NCLEX tests knowledge, and it does not check where you learned it. Then-US Attorney Markenzy Lapointe said about 30% of buyers passed (Orlando Sentinel via Governing, 20 January 2026). In the Noreus case, about 2,274 of 2,956 buyers passed (DOJ, 18 June 2026). Boards still pulled licences, because the rule is graduation from an approved programme.

2. Honest students at a bad school get hurt too. The Sentinel reported on an Ideal Professional Institute graduate who phoned the Florida board before enrolling and was told the school was approved. Her diploma was never flagged as bought. After the charges, the board would not let her retake the NCLEX. A board member told her: "I 100% don't blame you. I blame the school." A listed school means extra review, even for honest graduates.

3. Other regulators look back too. In the UK, the Nursing and Midwifery Council found "evidence of widespread fraudulent activity" at a test centre in Ibadan, Nigeria, and decided to treat "all CBTs obtained at Yunnik as invalid." Of 515 people already on its register, 48 were referred to a panel over suspected fraud, and the rest had to resit (NMC, 20 September 2023).

The real US route for internationally educated nurses

You do not need a US diploma to sit the NCLEX. The NCSBN manual for internationally educated nurses says boards check that your education is "comparable," and "the majority of BONs utilize a credentials evaluation agency" (NCSBN, 2023). A good evaluation, it says, is course by course, uses documents "sent directly from the issuing institution, not from the applicant," and checks that your school is "approved and authorized to provide (nursing) education" in your own country.

CGFNS International, which calls itself the world's largest credentials evaluation organisation for nursing, changed its name to TruMerit in 2025 (CGFNS, 25 February 2025). Some boards accept other agencies. The board where you apply decides.

The same manual warns about schools that claim accreditation from bodies that "are accreditation mills," and about fake transcripts sent by someone posing as a school principal from a free email account (NCSBN, 2023).

For which countries hire overseas nurses and what each asks for, see the best countries for nurses to migrate to. For Australia, the Ahpra guide for UK and Irish nurses shows a real registration route.

Which schools were named?

Boards use a school list, which is why people search for one. Being on it means boards review graduates closely. It does not mean every graduate bought a diploma.

Kentucky's list adds Nursing Bridges, Palm Beach International Institute and Suncoast College of Health (Kentucky Board of Nursing, accessed 8 November 2026). A school can call itself a "bridge" and still end up on a board's list of problem schools.

We do not publish the names of individual nurses. To check one person, use the free licence lookup below.

Red flags you can check yourself

Have a school, "bridge" programme or evaluator in mind? Run it through the free checker below. It flags the warning signs in this case, such as a qualification sold as a fast track or a school you cannot find on an official list.

How to check a school, bridging programme or evaluator

Your home school. Your qualification counts only if your own country's regulator recognised the school. Ask your Nursing Council or Ministry of Health to confirm it in writing.

A US nursing school. Check four things: the state board's list of approved programmes (Florida's Department of Health has a nursing programme search), national nursing accreditation such as the ACEN programme search, the school's NCLEX pass rate, and the board lists above.

A bridging or upgrade programme. It counts only if the regulator where you want to work accepts it. Email the regulator, ask, and keep the reply. Do not rely on the programme's website or the agent selling it.

A credential evaluator. Use only an evaluator named on your board's website, and type its address yourself instead of clicking a link from an agent. Make sure your school sends documents directly. NCSBN warns that scammers have "spoofed" its numbers and that it "will never call a nurse, nurse applicant or anyone else requesting personal information" (Nursys FAQ, accessed 8 November 2026).

A licence. Look up any US nurse's licence and discipline for free on Nursys QuickConfirm, run by the NCSBN.

For how fake schools work in general, read how to spot a diploma mill.

If you studied at one of these schools

Do not hide it. North Carolina's board treats "withholding material information" in a licence application as a violation (NCBON, 19 September 2025).

• Gather evidence now: class schedules, clinical logs, placement letters, emails with teachers, receipts. Delaware let some people who proved "legitimate education" test again.
• Ask the board what it needs from you, and keep every reply.
• Get advice from a licensed lawyer in that state if you receive a board letter. This page is general information, not legal advice.
• Ignore anyone who offers to "clean" your record for a fee. Board actions are shared nationally through the NPDB and Nursys.

Timeline

• 2009. Florida loosens its rules for approving nursing schools.
• From 2018. The sales described in DOJ plea and trial records begin; in the Carleen case they ran to 8 October 2025.
• 25 January 2023. Operation Nightingale is announced: 25 charged, more than 7,600 fake diplomas.
• 20 September 2023. Separately, the UK NMC treats all CBT results from one Nigerian test centre as invalid.
• 28 September 2023. DOJ reports 20 guilty pleas or trial convictions.
• 15 September 2025. Phase II: 12 more people charged.
• 8 May 2026. The Orlando Sentinel reports Florida has revoked 47 licences.
• 18 June 2026. A Carleen school owner pleads guilty; 2,956 diplomas traced to her schools.

The honest lesson

Most buyers in this story wanted to be nurses. The offer worked because it promised to skip only the slow part.

But the slow part is the job. Clinical hours, a transcript sent straight from your school, an evaluator your board names, a regulator's reply in your inbox. Those are what make a licence hold up years later, when a board looks back.

If anyone offers you a diploma, a "bridge" or an evaluation that is faster than the official route, ask the regulator first. A real route will still be there next week.

Frequently asked questions

What was Operation Nightingale?

Operation Nightingale is a US federal investigation into Florida nursing schools that sold diplomas and transcripts to people who never completed the courses or clinical training. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced it on 25 January 2023 with the FBI and HHS-OIG. Phase I involved more than 7,600 fake diplomas. Phase II charged 12 more people on 15 September 2025.

Is there a list of Operation Nightingale nurses?

There is no single national list. Some boards publish their own actions, such as Maryland's Operation Nightingale page and Delaware's list of annulled licences, updated 14 May 2025. To check one nurse, use the free Nursys QuickConfirm lookup or the state board's licence search. Boards also report these actions to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

Which schools were involved in Operation Nightingale?

Phase I named Siena College, Palm Beach School of Nursing and Sacred Heart International Institute, and a later DOJ release added Quisqueya School of Nursing. Phase II named schools including Carleen Home Health School, Sigma Institute of Health Careers, Ideal Professional Institute, Med-Life Institute, Techni-Pro Institute, Agape Academy of Sciences, Azure College and Academus University. Washington and Kentucky publish fuller lists.

Who went to prison for Operation Nightingale?

DOJ releases show prison sentences for school owners, staff and recruiters, including 78 months for the Palm Beach School of Nursing registrar, 36 and 33 months for two recruiters, 27 months for the Siena College manager and 21 months for the Palm Beach owner. Two Maryland defendants got 21 months each. A Carleen school owner pleaded guilty on 18 June 2026; we found no sentence as of 8 November 2026.

What happened to the nurses with fake diplomas?

Boards have suspended, revoked, annulled or denied licences case by case. Florida revoked 47, the Orlando Sentinel reported on 8 May 2026, while Maryland cleared 205 of 259 cases it reviewed. Actions are reported nationally, so they follow the nurse to other states.

Can I get a nursing licence if I went to an Operation Nightingale school?

It depends on the state and your evidence. North Dakota, Kentucky and other boards say applications from listed schools get extra review and may be denied. Florida refuses new licences to graduates of the discredited schools. Gather proof of your classes and clinical hours, and ask the board before you pay any fee.

Does Operation Nightingale affect nurses trained abroad?

Not directly, unless you used papers from these schools. But it shows that boards look back years and act on licences already issued. Internationally educated nurses can sit the NCLEX after a credentials evaluation of their home training, so an offer of a US diploma as a shortcut is a red flag.

How do I check if a nursing credential evaluator is real?

Use only an evaluator named on the website of the board where you will apply, and type its web address yourself. Make sure your school sends documents to it directly, as the NCSBN advises. NCSBN says it will never phone you to ask for personal information. CGFNS International now operates as TruMerit, after a name change announced on 25 February 2025.

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