Following high-end investigations, the Texas Board of Nursing, United States, has announced that it has charged no fewer than 75 nurses to court over issues bordering around falsification of certificates.
On the list posted on the website of the board, 43 of the names were identified as nurses of Nigerian origin.
The PUNCH had in February reported that 18 Nigerian nurses in the US were charged with certificate forgery.
The US authorities had said that list would be updated continuously as the board received additional information about “the fraudulent diploma/transcript scheme.”
Checks by our correspondent revealed that the list had grown longer with the number of Nigerian rising from the previous 18 to 43.
The investigations tagged, ‘Operation Nightingale,’ was described as a multi-state coordinated law enforcement action involving the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and was launched on January 25, 2023, to arrest individuals engaged in a scheme to sell false and fraudulent nursing degree diplomas and transcripts.
Commenting on the matter, the board said, “The board has filed formal charges against the following nurses for fraudulently obtaining educational credentials. The board is authorised to file formal charges against a nurse if probable cause exists that the nurse has committed an act listed in Tex. Occ. Code §301.452(b) or that violates other laws. See Tex. Occ. Code §301.458. Further, formal charges are publicly available. See Tex. Occ. Code §301.466(b).
“Please note that formal charges are not a final disciplinary action, and a nurse is permitted to work, as a nurse, while formal charges are pending.
The PUNCH reports that the Texas Board of Nursing had charged the health workers at the District Court for the Southern District of Florida, saying the nurses allegedly participated in a wire fraud scheme that created an illegal licensing and employment shortcut for aspiring nurses.
According to the charge documents, the scheme fraudulently sells nursing degree diplomas and transcripts obtained from accredited Florida-based nursing schools to individuals seeking licences and jobs as registered nurses and licensed practical/vocational nurses.
A special agent in charge of the investigations, Omar Aybar, said the alleged selling and purchasing of nursing diplomas and transcripts to willing but unqualified individuals is a crime that potentially endangers the health and safety of patients and insults the honourable profession of nursing.
The overall scheme involved the distribution of more than 7,600 fake nursing diplomas issued by three South Florida-based nursing schools: Siena College in Broward County, Fl; Palm Beach School of Nursing in Palm Beach County, Fl; Sacred Heart International Institute in Broward County.
According to charging documents, Sacred Heart International Institute was a Broward County School licensed by the Florida Board of Nursing that offered a nursing program designed to prepare students for employment as practical nurses.
The indictment charges Ludnie Jean of Harris County, Texas; Serge Jean of Harris County, Texas; Simon Itaman of Harris County, Texas; Anna Itaman of Harris County, Texas; Rhomy Louis of Suffolk County, N.Y.; and Nadege Auguste of Broward Countywith conspiring to and committing wire fraud. It is alleged that these defendants solicited and recruited individuals who sought nursing credentials to gain employment as an LPN/VN. These recruiters then arranged with Charles Etienne, Sacred Heart’s owner, to create and distribute false and fraudulent transcripts and diplomas representing that the aspiring candidates had attended Sacred Heart and completed the necessary courses and clinicals to obtain LPN/VN diplomas. In fact, the aspiring nurses never completed the necessary courses and clinicals. Etienne is charged by information with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The nursing candidates used the fake diplomas and transcripts they purchased from Sacred Heart to obtain LPN/VN licenses in various states and nursing jobs with unwitting health care providers throughout the country.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Markenzy Lapointe; acting Special Agent in Charge Chad Yarbrough, FBI, Miami Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Omar Perez Aybar, HHS-OIG, made the announcement.
FBI Miami and HHS-OIG Miami investigated these cases. Valuable assistance was provided by Homeland Security Investigations, Miami Field Office; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs-Office of Inspector General; United States Postal Inspection Service, Miami; and Florida Attorney General-Florida Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Mid-Atlantic Field Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Clark is prosecuting this case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Grosnoff is handling asset forfeiture. This case is being prosecuted in conjunction with a related criminal matter in the Eastern District of Maryland.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov
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