The US Department of Justice has announced an indictment against the owner of Liberia’s largest private media network, Stanton Witherspoon, along with about two dozen others, for allegedly selling over 7,600 bogus nursing certificates, which netted him and his accomplices a whopping US$114 million.
Witherspoon is the Chief Executive Officer of Spoon Group of Companies, a licensed Liberian owned business which owns Spoon FM, Super FM, and Fabric Radio in Monrovia. The business began operations in 2019.
His alleged crimes involve him participating in a wire fraud scheme that created an illegal licensing and employment shortcut for aspiring nurses and would land him in jail for 20 years, if proven guilty and property forfeiture, if any.
Under US law, he and his co-conspirators are presumed innocent until proven guilty, even though the scheme had been going on since 2018- lasting for nearly six years.
Witherspoon, however, in a statement has said although he has a lot to say, he is being restricted by his lawyers from going into additional details of the allegations.
“While I am very aware of your desire to get even more details on these charges, I can only appeal to you all to let the investigation and legal process play out,” he said.
“While temptation pushes me to address this matter in far more detail, I have to abide by my legal team’s instructions.”
While Witherspoon has not denied the authenticity of the indictment, a grand jury has indicted him along with his codefendants, for conspiring to commit the alleged wire fraud.
The overall scheme, the indictment said, involved the distribution of more than 7,600 fake nursing diplomas issued by three South Florida-based nursing schools: Siena College in Broward County, Fla., Palm Beach School of Nursing in Palm Beach County, Fla., and Sacred Heart International Institute in Broward County.
According to the indictment, Witherspoon used his company, the Nursing Education Resource Center (NERC), which was based in Newport, Delaware, to buy a 50% stake in Siena Education Center and Siena College (collectively Siena) and then conspired with his co-accused to sell fraudulent nursing degree diplomas and transcripts.
The fake qualifications were sold to individuals seeking licenses and jobs as registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPN/VNs), the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida claimed.
Witherspoon is also a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) who works in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania and is linked to the Lee Training Institute in the state of Delaware as a Nursing Director.
He previously worked prior as an LPN at a large nursing contractual agency known as Bayada. On his professional LinkedIn page, which has not been updated in recent times, Witherspoon claims to be a Pastor, Freelance Multimedia Journalist, Digital Strategist and Mental Health Enthusiast.
Through his foundation, Witherspoon has been rendering uncountable humanitarian assistance to less fortunate Liberians and groups in his native land. He has also used his platform to generate thousands of United States Dollars to the needy.