Brooklyn nursing review operator forfeits $4.7 million over fraudulent diplomas
Cassandre Jean owned and operated Success Nursing Review in Brooklyn, New York, which the Justice Department's "Operation Nightingale" investigation identified as a recruiting hub funneling out-of-state candidates toward fraudulent Florida nursing diplomas. A federal jury convicted Jean of wire fraud in December 2023 after trial. On April 2, 2024, US District Judge Raag Singhal sentenced Jean to 36 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, a $20,000 fine, and ordered forfeiture of $4,698,828, the largest individual forfeiture among the three defendants sentenced that day.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Sentenced
- Reported loss
- $4.7 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Nursing diploma mill fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-27
The facts, as recorded
- Cassandre Jean owned and operated Success Nursing Review in Brooklyn, New York, identified in reporting on the case as a recruiter who brought candidates toward the fraudulent diploma scheme rather than a school issuing the diplomas directly.
- A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida found Jean guilty of wire fraud on December 15, 2023, following a roughly three-week trial alongside co-defendants Gail Russ and Vilaire Duroseau.
- On April 2, 2024, US District Judge Raag Singhal sentenced Jean to 36 months in federal prison, three years of supervised release, and a $20,000 fine.
- Jean was ordered to forfeit $4,698,828, the largest forfeiture amount among the three defendants sentenced in this part of the case.
- The broader scheme, spanning multiple Florida-based schools, sold more than 7,600 fraudulent nursing diplomas and transcripts to buyers who paid $10,000 to $17,000 each.
Why this case matters
Jean’s forfeiture, nearly $4.7 million, was the largest of any individual defendant sentenced in this part of Operation Nightingale, larger than either the school registrar’s or the other recruiter’s. It shows how much money moved through a recruiting operation that, on paper, did not even issue the fraudulent diplomas itself.
A recruiter, not a school
Reporting on the case describes Jean’s business as one of the operations that brought candidates toward the fraudulent diplomas rather than the school producing them directly, the recruiting half of a scheme that depended on both sides, people willing to sell fake paperwork and people willing to find buyers for it.
Out of state, into Florida
Candidates recruited through operations like Jean’s traveled from outside Florida specifically to obtain diplomas from the Florida-licensed schools at the center of the case, a pattern the Justice Department’s search warrants, executed in Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Texas and Florida, reflect directly.
The caveat
Cassandre Jean was convicted by a federal jury in December 2023 and sentenced in April 2024; this is a completed criminal case, not an allegation. The $4,698,828 forfeiture reflects what the court ordered her personally to forfeit; it is not a claim that every dollar represents an individual victim’s direct loss, since the scheme’s harm falls on the integrity of the licensing system and on patients and employers generally rather than on a discrete, named group of people who lost a specific sum.
Sources
- Defunct nursing school registrar sentenced to 78 months in prison. WPTV (Scripps). Accessed 2026-10-27. Supports: Jean's ownership of Success Nursing Review in Brooklyn, her role as a recruiter, her 36-month sentence, three years of supervised release, the $20,000 fine, the $4,698,828 forfeiture, and the sentencing judge and date.
- Palm Beach fraudsters sentenced in bogus nursing diploma scheme, nearly $7m in forfeitures ordered. Hoodline. Accessed 2026-10-27. Supports: The $4.7 million forfeiture figure, the April 2, 2024 sentencing date, and Jean's role as operator of a Brooklyn nursing review business.
- 3 linked to Palm Beach School of Nursing fraud found guilty. WFLX FOX 29. Accessed 2026-10-27. Supports: The December 2023 jury verdict against Jean, Russ and Duroseau together, and the wire fraud and conspiracy charges.