📰 From the news · Fake admission / seat promise
2,956 nursing diplomas from two schools, 2,274 holders licensed: the Plantation school owner's guilty plea after two weeks of trial in Operation Nightingale's second phase
In the United States a nurse is licensed by a state board after passing the national NCLEX examination, but the board relies on the school's diploma and transcript to confirm that the candidate completed the required coursework. Operation Nightingale, the federal investigation into South Florida for-profit nursing schools that sold those documents, produced 30 charges and convictions in its first phase in 2023. It has since entered a second phase, and in June 2026 the owner of two more schools pleaded guilty after two weeks of trial.
According to NBC 6 South Florida, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced on 18 June 2026 that Carleen Noreus, 52, of Plantation, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering following a two-week trial in Fort Lauderdale. She was president of Carleen Home Health School, Inc. in Plantation and vice-president of Carleen Home Health School II, Inc. in West Palm Beach, both since terminated by state authorities. Prosecutors said that between April 2018 and October 2025 she was responsible for 2,956 fraudulent nursing diplomas, and that about 2,274 of the people who obtained them went on to pass national nursing board examinations and secure licences. US Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said that 'nursing licenses must be earned through education, training, and demonstrated competence, not purchased through fraud'.
WSVN reported on the same day that the diplomas and transcripts falsely represented that buyers had met the requirements for Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse or Bachelor of Science in Nursing credentials when they had not completed the required coursework, and that the resulting licences were issued in Florida and elsewhere in the country. Both outlets reported that she faces up to 20 years in prison on each count, with the sentence to be fixed by a federal district judge, and that she is one of 13 defendants charged in the second phase of Operation Nightingale.
The mechanism was the same as in the first phase: a real school, operating in the state until the authorities terminated it, issuing diplomas and transcripts for training that had not taken place. The licensing boards accepted that paperwork as proof of education, and because the buyers then passed a genuine examination, the fraud was invisible at the licensing stage.
For a student, the warning is about shortcuts offered by real institutions. A programme that promises a diploma in weeks, charges for the credential rather than the course, or offers to certify coursework you did not do is selling a licence that regulators can strip away once the school's records are examined. Verify a programme's approval with the state board, keep your own attendance and clinical records, and walk away from anyone who offers to sell you the transcript.
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This is a news-sourced case summary written by the TrustMBBS team, not a first-person account; see the sources above. They reflect one person's experience and are not a verdict on any institution. Report your own: Report a scam or tell your story.