Johanah Napoleon, the former president and owner of the Palm Beach School of Nursing in Florida, must serve 21 months in prison and must also pay $3.5 million as part of her sentencing for the role she played in a fraudulent nursing degree scheme, the Miami Herald reported July 19.
Her sentencing follows efforts from a federal probe into the degree scheme that led to federal charges of 25 defendants in January, followed by five pleading guilty to the charges in May.
Last year, Ms. Napoleon pleaded guilty to other federal charges of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud related to the case, according to the Herald.
Officials estimate that 7,600 students were affected by the network of now-shuttered South Florida schools that peddled the fraudulent nursing degrees, costing them between $10,000 and $17,000 depending on the nursing degree they hoped to obtain.
Many nurses affected by the scam could be at risk of losing their licenses entirely, and several have proclaimed their innocence, claiming to not have known what was going on behind the scenes as these schools racked up $114 million in revenue from selling the fake degrees.