A former administrator at a South Florida nursing school was found guilty Wednesday on charges of collaborating with the owner and recruiters in selling about 1,000 fake diplomas for millions of dollars to students recruited from Texas.
Stephanie Dorisca, the ex-director of nursing at Techni-Pro Institute in Boca Raton, was convicted of conspiring to commit wire fraud and five related charges after a three-day jury trial in Fort Lauderdale federal court. Dorisca, 57, of Coral Springs, faces up to 20 years in prison.
Dorisca is the latest of more than 40 people who have been charged over the past three years with selling about 15,000 phony nursing school diplomas to South Florida students who paid more than $220 million to take shortcuts in their education, federal authorities say. Many who obtained the fraudulent degrees later passed state board exams and obtained registered nursing and license practical nursing jobs at hospitals in Florida, New York and Texas, among other states…