BALTIMORE, MD—A Maryland man has been sentenced to prison for selling more than $1.6 million worth of fake nursing diplomas, transcripts and licenses, that allowed people to become nurses without completing the necessary coursework.

Ejike Sìe Asiaghunam, 55. of Upper Marlboro, was sentenced in federal court in Maryland on Monday to 21 months in prison and two years of supervised release. Judge Boardman also ordered Asiegbunam to forfeit $1,662,732 that Asiegbunam personally received as a result of the fraud.

As part of his plea agreement, he admitted to conspiring with others to sell the fraudulent documents to people looking to obtain nursing degrees.

Asiaghunam, who owned and operated Nursing School 2 in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, which was not licensed to offer licenses, sold the documents for between $15,000 and $22,000, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland. He also sold $5,000 worth of online prerequisites.

In addition, he and a co-conspirator, Johanah Napoleon, sold fake degrees from Palm Beach School of Nursing in Florida to people in Maryland and New York.

Asiaghunam would send student grades to the Palm Beach school, which would then send him transcripts, which he used to claim he had graduated. The Palm Beach school paid Asiaghunam 40% of the tuition fees as payment for recruiting the student.

Asiegbunam received approximately $272,400 from the Palm Beach School of Nursing for recruiting students.

The US Attorney’s Office in Maryland said that buying fake nursing diplomas from Asiaghunam and Napoleon allowed unqualified people to become nurses, which could have exposed patients to risk.

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki from Pexels