Carleen Noreus Pleads Guilty in 3,000 Fake Nursing Diplomas Scheme, Risking 20 Years
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 19
Carleen Noreus Pleads Guilty in 3,000 Fake Nursing Diplomas Scheme, Risking 20 Years
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 19
Summary
Carleen Noreus, 52, pleaded guilty after a two-week trial to selling nearly 3,000 fraudulent nursing diplomas and transcripts through two South Florida schools she owned or ran.
From 2018 to 2025, prosecutors said she used the documents to let buyers sit national nursing board exams without attending nursing school, then backdated transcripts to hide that her schools had already been shut down.
Nearly 2,300 recipients later passed the exams, obtained nursing licenses and worked as nurses across the country, according to court records.
Noreus admitted conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, each carrying up to 20 years in prison, and identified Stanton Witherspoon as paying her to falsify diplomas.
The case is part of Operation Nightingale, a nationwide crackdown on nursing diploma mills whose first phase in 2023 charged and convicted 30 defendants; Noreus was among 13 charged in phase two.