Like dozens of South Florida nursing school operators, Carleen Noreus got swept up into the FBI’s diploma-mill dragnet — accused of selling thousands of fake degrees for millions of dollars to students who authorities say took “shortcuts” in their education to become licensed nurses.
But unlike most who pleaded guilty and cut plea deals in the crackdown on more than 20 private nursing schools, Noreus took her chances on a federal jury trial that started on Monday in Fort Lauderdale federal court. The risk could send the 52-year-old Plantation woman, who is charged in a 10-count indictment with conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering while operating South Florida nursing schools, to prison for a long time.
Her case appears to be the last in the long-running nursing-school scandal that erupted in 2023 after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Florida filed the first batch of indictments…