5 plead guilty in fake nursing diploma scheme in Florida

LTC Eugene Chu
..."Three now-shuttered South Florida nursing schools sold about 7,600 fake diplomas, worth about $100 million, prosecutors alleged. The schools were based out of Broward and Palm Beach counties.The following five defendants pleaded guilty, according to authorities: Krystal Lopez and Damian Lopez of Palm Beach County; Francois Legagneur of Suffolk County, New York; Reynoso Seide of Union County, New Jersey; and Yelva Saint Preux of Suffolk County, New York.

Prosecutors said Damian Lopez, Legagneur, Seide, and Saint Preux admitted to soliciting and recruiting people who sought nursing credentials.

“They also admitted to working with Palm Beach School of Nursing to create and distribute fraudulent diplomas and transcripts representing that the aspiring nursing candidates had attended the school and completed the necessary courses and clinicals to obtain their nursing diplomas,” prosecutors said in a news release. “In fact, the aspiring nurses had not completed the courses and clinicals.”...