More than three years after federal agents exposed a scheme that sold thousands of fake nursing credentials, the last contested case is before a jury — and for the first time, prosecutors are tying the fraud scheme to a patient’s death.
The federal fraud trial that opened June 1 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is the first case in a yearslong fake nursing degree scheme, called Operation Nightingale, in which prosecutors have alleged the scheme contributed to a patient’s death.
Carleen Noreus, who operated two South Florida nursing schools, is the rare defendant in the sprawling diploma-mill investigation to reject a plea deal and take her case to a jury, according to the Miami Herald. She was charged in a 10-count indictment with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering tied to the sale of fraudulent diplomas and transcripts, according to court documents accessed by Becker’s.
Her trial appears to be the final contested matter in a scandal that has produced roughly 50 defendants since the first indictments in 2023, the Herald reported June 2.
‘Money and greed’ on trial
In opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Clark invoked Florence Nightingale, the name of the federal operation and the founder of modern nursing, to frame the stakes.
“We as patients put our trust in nurses — that they are equipped to perform the job,” Mr. Clark told the jury, according to the Herald. “However, in this case that whole paradigm was turned on its head.”
He argued Ms. Noreus was driven by “money and greed,” enrolling about 2,750 students across schools in Plantation and West Palm Beach and charging $10,000 to $20,000 for bogus credentials between 2018 and 2023. Mr. Clark said she coached students to pass state licensing exams rather than educating them.
The death allegation is what sets this case apart.
Mr. Clark said in court filings that Ms. Noreus sold a fake associate’s degree to a student who took a few part-time classes, passed the registered nurse licensing exam in early 2021, and later worked as a traveling nurse who “contributed” to a patient’s death at a St. Louis hospital in 2023.
The nurse — identified in Ms. Noreus’ indictment only as “co-conspirator No. 1” — did not recognize the patient’s irregular heart rhythm in time or escalate it to the attending physician, according to the filing.
Ms. Noreus’ attorney, Andrew Feldman, urged jurors to separate the nurse’s conduct from his client’s.
“The government can say ‘fake school, fake diploma,’ but these nurses have never practiced without a license,” he said, according to the Herald, arguing the case is not about medical malpractice and that the nurse’s mistakes “have nothing to do with Carleen Noreus.”
| Operation Nightingale, by the numbers Between 7,500 to 15,000 fraudulent nursing degrees sold $220 million paid by students to bypass their training (prosecutor’s trial estimate) ~50 defendants charged since 2023 20+ now-shuttered nursing schools implicated 37% of diploma buyers estimated to have passed the NCLEX and gone on to work 94 nurses disciplined in Connecticut, of more than 175 with licenses from the schools 47 nurse licenses revoked in Florida, where the schools operated |
A cleanup moving at different speeds
Ms. Noreus’ trial unfolds against a regulatory cleanup that is still incomplete and uneven from state to state.
In a separate development, the Orlando Sentinel reported in May that Florida had moved to sanction a nurse, Tahira Bastien, who holds a Florida license but was barred from practicing in Missouri in 2023 after errors that ended in a patient’s death at a St. Louis hospital.
The state referred her case to an administrative judge. Ms. Bastien, who received a degree from an implicated South Florida school, remains eligible to work in Florida pending a hearing; she and her attorney did not respond to the Sentinel’s requests for comment, and the allegations against her are unresolved.
The Sentinel reported that Florida has revoked the licenses of 47 nurses who attended schools named in the probe while allowing others to keep working, even after other states moved against them.
Some states, like Connecticut, have reported a stream of regulatory actions against 94 of more than 175 people who attained degrees at these schools, CT Insider reported May 20. Florida, where the schools were based, has so far disciplined about 47.
Prosecutors are working through what they call phase 2 of the broader scheme. In September, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said the phase 2 schools alone generated roughly 7,300 fraudulent diplomas. Mr. Clark put the full South Florida estimate far higher, claiming in Ms. Noreus’ trial that more than 20 schools sold about 15,000 fake degrees to students who paid more than $220 million to shortcut their training, the Herald reported.
Officials have estimated that about 37% of buyers passed the National Council Licensure Examination and went on to work. And because Florida participates in the Nurse Licensure Compact — adopted by more than 40 states — some who obtained licenses through fraud were cleared to practice in other compact states without additional licensing, spreading the exposure nationwide.
Regulators stress that attendance at an implicated school is not by itself proof of fraud, which is part of why the cases move slowly.
Dawn Kappel, director of marketing and communications for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, told CT Insider that some students received legitimate training and faced no discipline, while others may have been swindled by the schools, sometimes because of language barriers.
Nurses found to have likely known their credentials were fraudulent had their licenses revoked, Ms. Kappel said, and each licensee is entitled to due process and a hearing.
| How the scheme unfolded 2019 — Federal investigation begins after a tip out of Maryland, leading to an FBI undercover operation. January 2023 — First indictments unsealed; 25 people charged as the scheme becomes public. December 2023 — First trial convictions — registrar Gail Russ and recruiters Cassandre Jean and Vilaire Duroseau found guilty. September 2025 — Phase 2: 12 more nursing-school owners and employees charged. May 2026 — State licensing scrutiny intensifies; reporting highlights uneven enforcement in Florida and Connecticut. June 1, 2026 — Carleen Noreus, the last contested defendant, goes to trial in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. |
Most cases resolved by plea
Ms. Noreus’ trial is the exception in a docket largely resolved by guilty pleas and convictions.
Gail Russ, the former registrar at the Palm Beach School of Nursing, was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison after a December 2023 trial. Student recruiters Cassandre Jean and Vilaire Duroseau drew three years and two years and nine months, respectively. Johanah Napoleon, the school’s former president, pleaded guilty, cooperated with prosecutors and received a sentence of 21 months.
For hospitals, the through line is credentialing risk that has not closed with the criminal cases. A nurse blocked in one state can remain licensed and employable in another, and the patient safety exposure that healthcare attorneys flagged when the scheme first surfaced is now, for the first time, at the center of a federal trial.
When Operation Nightingale was announced in 2023, officials said there were no known reports of patient harm tied to the scheme at that point. A jury in Fort Lauderdale is now weighing an allegation that tests that initial report.
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