Eight South Florida residents have either pleaded guilty or been convicted for their participation in a scheme where thousands of fake nursing diplomas and transcripts were sold out of three accredited schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties to aspiring nurses, allowing them to sit for national board exams and to land nursing jobs across the country.
Seven of the eight pleaded guilty, including two nursing school owners, while one defendant was convicted Thursday. Four of them are awaiting sentencing.
A total of 20 defendants who federal prosecutors announced charges against in the Southern District of Florida in January have been convicted or have pleaded guilty.
Siena College in Lauderhill, Sacred Heart International Institute in Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach School of Nursing in Palm Beach County distributed over 7,600 fraudulent diplomas, and all three schools have closed, federal prosecutors said.
Aspiring nurses could buy the diplomas for, on average, $15,000. About 2,400 of those who bought the diplomas eventually passed the national exams, affording them registered nurse licenses, practical and vocational nurse licenses and nursing jobs across the country, without their employers knowing that they had not completed the minimum requirements for those jobs.
Among the South Floridians who have been sentenced:
- Eunide Sanon, of Fort Lauderdale, managed Siena College. She pled guilty in March to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. She is currently held in the federal prison in Jackson County and will be released in April 2025.
- Johanah Napoleon, owner of Palm Beach School of Nursing, pled guilty in November to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced in July to 21 months in prison. Napoleon does not appear in Federal Bureau of Prisons’ online inmate records.
- Geralda Adrien, of Fort Lauderdale, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and was sentenced in August 2022. She is currently held in the federal prison in Miami and will be released in March 2024.
- Woosevelt Predestin, of Fort Lauderdale, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and was sentenced in August 2022 to 27 months in prison. Predestin does not appear in Federal Bureau of Prisons’ online inmate records.
Among the South Floridians who are awaiting sentencing:
- Nadege Auguste, of Coral Springs, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud Thursday and is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
- Krystal Lopez, a Palm Beach School of Nursing employee, pled guilty in May to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
- Damian Lopez, of Palm Beach County, pled guilty in May to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced in December.
- Charles Etienne, owner of Sacred Heart International Institute, pled guilty in April to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced in November.
Court records say Auguste, who worked with Etienne and was a business partner with an out-of-state defendant in the scheme, assisted with the buying and distributing of nearly 100 fraudulent Sacred Heart International Institute diplomas and transcripts.
Auguste had a past conviction in New York for persuading low-income immigrants to enroll in an unapproved nursing program she operated, falsely telling them they’d get the education they needed to become licensed nurses. She had stolen $2 million in tuition and was sentenced to one-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years in prison.
She waived her right to a jury trial Tuesday, and the judge sentenced her Thursday.
Twelve defendants in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Texas have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
Information from the Associated Press and the South Florida Sun Sentinel archives was used in this report.
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