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Monrovia — The owner of the Spoon Communication Network, Stanton Witherspoon, is part of a group of people charged and arrested for their alleged participation in a wire fraud scheme that created an illegal licensing and employment shortcut for aspiring nurses worth over $100 million.
The information surfaced on two credible American websites – 101 Local.com and The United States Department of Justice’s website – on January 25, 2023.
According to these sources, three recently unsealed indictments filed by federal prosecutors said the defendants engaged in a scheme to sell fraudulent nursing degree diplomas and transcripts obtained from accredited Florida-based nursing schools to individuals seeking licenses and jobs as registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPN/VNs).
The Justice Department of the United States of America website said the overall scheme involved the distribution of more than 7,600 fake nursing diplomas issued by three South Florida-based nursing schools.
Here are Witherspoon and his colleagues’ charges:
U.S. v. Witherspoon et al., case no.: 23-60005-Cr-Smith
Note: These charges were directly copied from the Justice Department’s website
The charging documents describe Siena College as a Broward County school licensed by the Florida Commission for Independent Education and the Florida Board of Nursing that offers a Practical Nursing Program and an RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program. Eugene Sanon managed Siena College.
The indictment charges defendants Stanton Witherspoon of Burlington County N.J.; Alfred Sellu of Burlington County N.J.; and Rene Bernadel of Westchester County, N.Y. with conspiring to commit and committing wire fraud. The indictment alleges that Witherspoon, Sellu, and Bernadel solicited and recruited individuals who sought nursing credentials to gain employment as an RN or LPN/VN.
It is alleged that these defendants arranged with Sanon, who managed Siena College and is charged by information with wire fraud conspiracy, to create and distribute false and fraudulent diplomas and transcripts. These fake documents represented that the aspiring RN and LPN/VN candidates had attended Siena College’s nursing program in Broward County and completed the necessary courses and clinics to obtain RN or LPN/VN diplomas. In fact, aspiring nurses never completed the necessary courses and clinical.
The information against Sanon alleges that he and others sold thousands of fake Siena College nursing diplomas and educational transcripts to nursing applicants who used them to obtain RN or LPN/VN licenses in various states and nursing jobs with unwitting health care providers throughout the country.
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