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A woman pleaded guilty this week to selling nearly 3,000 fraudulent nursing diplomas through schools she owned and operated in South Florida.
Carleen Noreus, 52, took a plea deal after a two-week trial, during which prosecutors showed the jury dozens of exhibits, including some of the fake diplomas and transcripts given to people who had not completed the training to become registered nurses, per court records reviewed by Digital.
“Nursing licenses must be earned through education, training, and demonstrated competence, not purchased through fraud,” Jason A. Reding Quiñones, the U.S. attorney in Florida’s southern district, said in a statement.
“By selling thousands of fraudulent diplomas and transcripts, the defendant undermined the integrity of the nursing profession and our healthcare system,” Quiñones continued. “The Southern District of Florida remains committed to holding accountable those who profit by corrupting professional licensing processes and placing the public at risk.”
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President Donald Trump nominated Judge Jason Reding Quiñones to serve as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida on Sunday. (Florida Courts)
Noreus, who has been a registered nurse since 2002, sold the phony diplomas from April 2018 to October 2025, prosecutors said. The documents she sold enabled these people to sit for the national nursing board examinations without needing to go to nursing school, according to prosecutors.
Nearly 2,300 people who obtained diplomas or transcripts from Noreus got licenses by passing the board exams and went on to work as nurses across the country, court documents said.
Both of the schools she founded as avenues to sell the diplomas were named after her and were subsequently shut down by state authorities. She was the president of Carleen Home Health School, Inc., in Plantation and vice president of Carleen Home Health School II, Inc., in West Palm Beach.
The now-defunct nursing school in Plantation, Florida, that Carleen Noreus used to sell fraudulent diplomas. (carleenhealthinstitute.org)
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Prosecutors said Noreus collaborated with others in the wide-ranging, multi-year scheme.
In a statement of fact Noreus signed on Monday, she said Stanton Witherspoon, who was president of Carleen Home Health School II, paid her to falsify diplomas for entry-level nurses, registered nurses and bachelor’s-level nurses.
Additionally, Noreus admitted that she backdated transcripts issued to students to make it look as though they had received their degrees before her schools had been terminated by the state.
A stock image of a nurse in blue scrubs (Xavier Lorenzo)
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Noreus pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to money laundering. She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each count.
Noreus was one of 13 defendants charged in the second phase of Operation Nightingale, a nationwide investigation to uncover fraudulent nursing diploma mills. The first phase concluded in 2023, resulting in 30 defendants being charged and convicted.
