A woman pled guilty this week to selling nearly 3,000 fake nursing diplomas through a school she operated in South Florida.
Karlene Noreus, 52, accepted a plea deal after a two-week trial where prosecutors showcased various pieces of evidence, including samples of the counterfeit diplomas and transcripts handed out to individuals who had not actually completed the necessary training to become registered nurses. These details emerged from court records.
“Nursing licenses should be earned through education, training, and demonstrated ability, not through fraud,” stated Jason A. Redding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
He further noted, “The defendants have undermined the nursing profession and jeopardized our nation’s health care system by selling thousands of fraudulent diplomas and transcripts. The Southern District of Florida is committed to holding accountable those who profit from corrupting the occupational licensing process and endangering the public.”
Prosecutors revealed that Noreus, who had been a registered nurse since 2002, sold these falsified diplomas from April 2018 to October 2025. The documents she provided allowed people to take the National Board of Nursing Examination without ever attending nursing school.
About 2,300 individuals who obtained diplomas or transcripts from Noreus successfully passed their board exams, received licenses, and went on to work as nurses nationwide, according to court documents.
The two schools she created for selling these diplomas were named after her but are now shut down by state authorities. She served as president of Carleen Home Health School, Inc. in Plantation and was vice president of Carleen Home Health School II, Inc. in West Palm Beach.
Prosecutors indicated that Noreus worked with others in this extensive scheme over several years.
In a signed statement of facts, Noreus acknowledged that Stanton Witherspoon, president of Carleen Home Health School No. 2, paid her to forge various nursing diplomas. She also confessed to retroactively producing transcripts for students, making it seem as if they had earned their degrees before the state’s closure of the schools.
Noreus pled guilty to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. She faces up to 20 years in prison for each count.
Noreus was among 13 defendants implicated in the second phase of Operation Nightingale, a nationwide investigation targeting nursing degree fraud. Previously, 30 defendants were indicted and convicted in the initial phase of the operation, which wrapped up in 2023.
