Palm Beach School of Nursing: A Full Timeline of Florida School’s Fake Diploma Scheme
Credit: Utamaru Kido / Moment / Getty Images- In May 2017, the Florida Board of Nursing revokes the Palm Beach School of Nursing’s license due to the school’s low NCLEX passage rate, but the school continues to operate illegally.
- Palm Beach School of Nursing owner and president Johanah Napoleon pleads guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2022.
- On January 25, 2023, the court announces that more than two dozen people have been indicted in the fake nursing diploma ring.
In January 2023, news broke that federal authorities uncovered more than 7,600 fake nursing degrees from three Florida nursing schools. Those involved in the nursing diploma mill profited roughly $114 million by selling shortcut nursing degrees to individuals for $15,000 each.
Since then, 27 individuals have been convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. See our full timeline below for all the details, including key events and trial dates in the scheme.
Timeline of Florida’s Fake Diploma Scheme
June 2012
According to court records, the Florida Board of Nursing licenses the Palm Beach School of Nursing as a nursing education program in June 2012.
April 2016
In April 2016, the State of Florida incorporates the Palm Beach School of Nursing (registered in the state as a legal and separate entity).
May 2017
The Florida Board of Nursing revokes the Palm Beach School of Nursing’s license due to the school’s low NCLEX passing rate.
According to data from the Florida Center for Nursing (FCN), the Palm Beach School of Nursing has 381 students take the test in 2018, and only 63 candidates — or less than 17% of takers — pass. This is significantly lower than the statewide average NCLEX-RN passage rate of 72.74% and even lower than the national average of 88.29%.
The Palm Beach School of Nursing continues to operate —- albeit illegally.
December 2020
The New York State Education Department reports that the Palm Beach School of Nursing officially closed in December 2020.
November 2022
As summarized by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, Palm Beach School of Nursing owner and president, Johanah Napoleon pleads guilty to counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2022.
Napoleon herself was a Haitian-born nurse before her entrepreneurial endeavors, and many of her clients were also immigrants from Haiti: new to America and unfamiliar with the higher education system.
January 2023
On January 25, 2023, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announces that more than two dozen people have been indicted in a fake nursing diploma scheme.
The diploma ring is exposed through an undercover investigation called “Operation Nightingale” — named after legendary nurse Florence Nightingale.
“Not only is this a public safety concern, it also tarnishes the reputation of nurses who actually complete the demanding clinical and course work required to obtain their professional licenses and employment,” says U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe in a statement.
March 2023
The New Jersey Boarding of Nursing rescinds the nursing licenses of 20 New Jersey health professionals. Another 26 licenses also implicated in the nursing diploma scheme are nullified.
May 2023
Nursing boards of all 50 states filter through their licensure rolls. Pennsylania’s board of nursing sends disciplinary notices to 18 nurses with degrees from either the Palm Beach School of Nursing or the Med-Life Institute West Palm Beach and are given 30 days to contest their license revocation by showing their transcripts and other appropriate paperwork.
July 2023
Napoleon is sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay $3.2 million.
December 2023
Another three key players in the nursing diploma scam are found guilty in the Southern District of South Florida court. Gail Russ, a registrar at the school in Lake Worth Beach, Cassandre Jean, owner and operator of Success Nursing Review in Brooklyn, New York, and Vilare Duroseau, owner and operator of the Center for Advanced Training and Studies West Orange, New Jersey are found guilty of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The latter two acted as recruiters for Russ.
All three face up to 20 years in prison.
February 2024
On January 31, 2024 and February 8, 2024, attorney Jesse Baldwin files two lawsuits in the state Supreme Court of Albany, representing four nurses. He argues that the state intimidated his clients into surrendering their licenses when they should have first had a formal hearing investigating each case.
In 2023, the state of New York had asked 900 nurses to voluntarily surrender their nursing licenses for a chance to redo their education and retake the nursing exam. Their history would also not be held against them.
Former Students Left With Nothing
Former students of the nursing programs find themselves without a degree and facing deficits of more than $20,000.
In an interview with South Florida’s Only on 6, former student Lucy Brown said, “Tuition, I paid $16,000, not to mention I had to pay $99 to sit the exam.” She continued, “Plus I paid the plane fare, hotel, so roughly $25,000.”
As with the thousands of others who got their licenses revoked, Brown is left with no diploma and no refund.
Ali, 57, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that she took online nursing courses every day for nearly a year. In November 2022, Delaware officials notified Ali, 57, that her nursing license was annulled.
“This year alone, I think I’ve cried more than all my life,” Ali said. “I think about all this time that I wasted, all my efforts and my money, and people see you like you are a fraud. That’s what hurts.”
Effects of the Pandemic on Online Training
In an interview with South Florida’s Only on 6, Dr. Rebekah Bernard, MD, president of the nonprofit Physicians for Patient Protection, commented that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a surge in online programs.
“I would say that based on the rapid proliferation of online training programs that started well before COVID-19 but have definitely increased since COVID-19 just because of the difficulties we’ve had with being able to have in-person training, we know that there’s going to be a higher chance that some of these people are going to slip through the cracks.”
According to Bernard, this makes it unsurprising that something like the nursing school diploma scheme could occur after the pandemic.
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