South Florida nursing-school operator gets seven years in fake-degree scheme

A South Florida nursing-school operator who pleaded guilty midway through her federal trial to selling thousands of bogus nursing degrees was sentenced Tuesday to 87 months — seven years and three months — in prison, prosecutors confirmed.

Carleen Noreus, 52, of Plantation, received the sentence from U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal in Fort Lauderdale after admitting to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a diploma-mill operation that prosecutors say produced nearly 3,000 fraudulent nursing credentials and allowed people who had not completed required coursework and clinical training to seek licenses and jobs as nurses.

The sentence fell well below the 188 to 235 months — roughly 15½ to 19½ years — calculated under federal sentencing guidelines, but exceeded the five years requested by Noreus’ defense attorneys.

The sentencing brought a dramatic end to a case that appeared headed for a jury verdict in June. Unlike most of the dozens of South Florida nursing-school operators and recruiters prosecuted in a sweeping federal crackdown on diploma mills, Noreus took her chances at trial.

But after Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher J. Clark and Jon M. Juenger spent two weeks presenting the government’s evidence against her, Noreus abruptly changed course. On June 15, she pleaded guilty to two counts in her 10-count indictment rather than present a defense and let the jury decide her guilt or innocence.

Nearly 3,000 bogus nursing credentials

Noreus served as president of Carleen Home Health School in Plantation and was also involved in Carleen Home Health School II in West Palm Beach.

Prosecutors say what began as legitimate nursing schools evolved into an operation that sold diplomas and transcripts to aspiring nurses who had not completed the education and clinical training that the documents claimed they had received.

The operation began around 2018, when Noreus agreed to provide fraudulent credentials to nursing students recruited through Medlife Institute, another school implicated in the federal investigation, according to prosecutors.

The price initially ranged from $5,000-$6,000 per student but eventually rose to $12,000-$16,000 as the volume increased. Many of the students never attended the Carleen schools, prosecutors said. Instead, their information was sent to Noreus, who used it to create diplomas and transcripts showing coursework and clinical training that had never been completed.

At the Plantation school, prosecutors say, Noreus eventually began offering what she called an “80% review” program after its nursing programs were terminated in 2020.

Students attended three weekends — six days — of nursing review training and, after making their final payments, received diplomas and transcripts backdated to make it appear that they had attended when the school was authorized to issue nursing degrees.

Noreus then submitted fraudulent transcripts to state nursing boards so students could take licensing examinations and obtain nursing licenses, according to prosecutors. She and others also verified false educational histories when prospective employers sought confirmation.

The government says Noreus provided almost 3,000 fraudulent transcripts and diplomas to students who sought to take the NCLEX nursing licensing examination.

Many passed.

That meant a fraud that began in two South Florida nursing schools ultimately reached hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities around the country as people with fraudulent educational credentials obtained nursing licenses and jobs caring for patients.

Central figure

Prosecutors Clark and Juenger portrayed Noreus as a central figure in the diploma-mill operation rather than simply a school administrator who became entangled with dishonest recruiters and students.

In a sentencing filing, Clark said Noreus earned approximately $10 million from the scheme, exercised decision-making authority over the schools and “participated in every aspect of planning and organizing the execution of the nursing school diploma fraud scheme.”

“Noreus enjoyed the greatest share of profit” from the operation, Clark wrote.

Noreus’ lawyers had disputed the government’s portrayal of her role. They argued that prosecutors had not shown that she directed or supervised the criminal conduct of others and challenged an increase in her recommended punishment for being a leader or organizer.

Her attorneys also challenged the government’s calculation of the financial scope of the fraud.

The U.S. Probation Office used a figure of $26 million in intended losses to calculate Noreus’ recommended sentence. The defense argued that the evidence presented at trial showed gains of approximately $9.5 million and accused prosecutors of using a dramatically higher loss calculation in her case.

Those and other calculations resulted in an advisory sentencing range of 188 to 235 months.

Noreus’ lawyers asked Singhal to go much lower.

They sought a sentence of no more than 60 months, emphasizing that Noreus had no prior criminal record, had accepted responsibility and expressed remorse. They also argued that a longer prison term would create an enormous disparity between her punishment and the sentences imposed on other defendants in the South Florida nursing-school investigations.

Among those cited by the defense was Stanton Witherspoon, the New Jersey businessman who helped recruit students for Noreus’ schools and became a key government witness against her.

Witherspoon pleaded guilty in a separate nursing-school prosecution and cooperated with federal authorities. Noreus’ lawyers also pointed to other defendants who received sentences ranging from less than three years to 6½ years.

Prosecutors countered that the comparisons ignored a crucial distinction: Many of those defendants pleaded guilty before trial and cooperated with investigators.

Noreus went to trial and accepted responsibility only after Clark and Juenger had spent two weeks laying out the government’s case.

Patient death became sentencing issue

One of the most serious disputes involved a nurse who obtained fraudulent credentials through a Noreus school and was later linked to the death of a patient at a St. Louis hospital.

Prosecutors identified the nurse in their sentencing filing as Tahira Bastien.

According to the government, Bastien attended only a few classes part-time and studied for the nursing-licensing examination at Carleen Health Institute for approximately two months before receiving a diploma and transcript falsely representing that she had completed the requirements for an associate degree in nursing.

She subsequently passed the NCLEX registered-nurse examination and obtained work as a traveling nurse.

Bastien was eventually assigned to Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, where prosecutors say that on Aug. 2, 2023, she failed to provide proper medical care to a patient experiencing atrial fibrillation and failed to timely notify a physician or supervising nurse as the patient’s condition deteriorated. The patient died that day.

Clark argued that the episode justified increasing Noreus’ recommended punishment because the diploma fraud created a conscious or reckless risk of death or serious bodily injury. In the government’s sentencing filing, he asserted that the patient’s injuries and death “directly resulted from defendant’s conduct.”

The defense vigorously disputed that connection.

Noreus’ lawyers argued that she played no role in the patient’s death and that prosecutors had not shown she knew Bastien lacked the clinical training necessary to treat patients.

The defense acknowledged, however, that Noreus backdated Bastien’s transcript and transferred credits onto it to create the false appearance that she had completed courses at Carleen Health Institute during a period when the school was eligible to enroll students in the nursing program.

Millions surrendered to government

Noreus also sought leniency based on the millions of dollars that she agreed to surrender to the government.

Her attorneys said she had committed about $4 million toward forfeiture, describing the payment as an extraordinary step that had effectively bankrupted her.

The defense argued that few defendants prosecuted in the nursing-school cases had voluntarily surrendered anything approaching that amount and that Singhal should consider the payment in deciding how much prison time to impose.

Prosecutors disputed the significance that the defense placed on the payment, arguing that Noreus agreed to surrender the money only after years of investigation, her indictment and two weeks of trial.

The final forfeiture amount has not yet been resolved, with a separate hearing expected later.

Noreus’ prosecution was part of Operation Nightingale, the federal investigation that exposed a network of more than 20 South Florida nursing schools accused of selling fraudulent diplomas and transcripts to people seeking shortcuts to become licensed practical nurses and registered nurses.

The investigation, which began in 2019, rattled the healthcare industry because many of the people who obtained the bogus educational credentials were able to pass nursing-licensing examinations and obtain jobs treating patients in Florida and other states.