Enlarge / A important care nurse assists a affected person. (credit score: Getty | Katherine Frey/The Washington Publish)

Greater than 2,800 individuals could also be working as nurses underneath false pretenses after allegedly shopping for a faux diploma for between $10,000 and $15,000 from an enormous Florida-based scheme just lately busted by federal investigators. State and federal authorities at the moment are working to trace down the alleged fraudulent nurses, and in some circumstances, instantly annulling their licenses.

Final week, the Division of Justice introduced costs towards 25 individuals in 5 states related to the alleged scheme. The investigation, code-named Operation Nightingale, discovered proof that the 25 defendants labored to promote greater than 7,600 faux diplomas, together with transcripts, between 2016 and 2021, making over $100 million within the course of. The fraudulent diplomas and transcripts had been allegedly issued from three accredited Florida-based nursing faculties: Siena School and Sacred Coronary heart Worldwide Institute in Broward County and Palm Seashore College of Nursing in Palm Seashore County.

The three faculties at the moment are closed and the 25 defendants every resist 20 years in jail.