Federal judge sends grandma, two others to prison for running nursing-school ‘diploma mill’
As a group of weeping supporters bid her farewell, a 72-year-old grandmother was escorted out of a Fort Lauderdale federal courtroom to prison on Tuesday after a judge sentenced Gail Russ to more than six years for running a “diploma mill” out of a defunct nursing school that sold thousands of fake degrees for millions of dollars.
Russ, 72, the former registrar at the Palm Beach School of Nursing, was convicted of conspiracy along with a dozen wire fraud charges at trial in December, when jurors found that she carried out the dirty work of the school’s owner by selling 3,383 bogus diplomas for $10,000 to $20,000 each.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal, who described Russ as a “mule” who handles all of the administration at the storefront nursing school, gave the elderly Coconut Creek woman a bit of a break. He opted to sentence her to 6-1/2 years rather than as much as double that punishment under federal sentencing guidelines after the defendant, her lawyers, a niece and the pastor of her church asked for leniency.
In addition to Russ, the judge sentenced Cassandre Jean, 38, a student recruiter from New York, to three years in prison, and Vilaire Duroseau, 58, a student recruiter from New Jersey, to two years and nine months.
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