More assholes stealing from the public trough

I mean seriously...

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11 metro Detroiters busted in student-loan crime ring


March 28, 2013

By Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The federal government has busted a massive student-loan crime ring, charging 11 people across Metro Detroit with orchestrating a scheme that raided more than $1 million from the government by applying for bogus aid, the U.S. Attorneys office announced today.



One ringleader, the government said, recruited more than 40 people to apply as students for enrollment and aid, even though most had neither a high school diploma nor a GED, and were therefore ineligible to receive student aid. As a result, participants in that scheme alone received more than $665,000 in federal student aid. Meanwhile, two of the same ringleader’s brothers orchestrated a similar scheme.



Related: Pell Grant scammers ripping off Michigan colleges for millions (link not here, but kept this in because assholes steal from all aid programs).



The case involves four separate crime rings that, authorities say, targeted mainly distance education programs, such as Internet college courses, where students don’t have to be physically present for courses. The groups operated independently of one another between 2006 and 2010.



“Student aid is not a slush fund for criminals; it provides an opportunity for honest, hard-working students who wish to make their dream of a higher education a reality,” Inspector General Kathleen Tighe of the U.S. Department of Education said in a statement. (OOOhhhh, that's telling 'em! I'm sure they'll stop doing it now you idiot).



Those charged include: Nina Cooks, 50, Detroit; Sandra Roberts, 40, Detroit; Jacquelyn Robinson, 60, Detroit; Luther Hampton, 55, Eastpointe; Ulysses Hampton, 49, Westland; Ulysses Hampton, Jr., 23, Detroit; Brian Hickman, 45, Detroit; Jason Watkins, 28, Clinton Township; Candace Cureton 61, Detroit; Malayka Burks, 35, Detroit; and Shirley Jimerson, 47, Detroit. (What do you think? Malayka? Ulysses? Ulysses Jr?)



Since 2010, the Department of Education, Office of Inspector General has highlighted the vulnerability of distance education programs to fraud and abuse.

This, according to the government, is how the schemes work:

The rings target mainly lower-cost institutions because student loans can easily cover tuition for their courses, resulting in a higher award balance -- known as a refund -- paid to the student. It is these financial aid refund awards that the crime rings are after. The student applicants have no intention of pursuing a degree, and often are not even eligible for the aid, authorities say. Instead, they take a cut of the financial aid refund proceeds, and turn the rest over to the ring leaders.

Authorities say distance education programs -- where the students don’t have to be physically present for courses -- are especially susceptible to fraud because of how they operate. By design, these institutions that offer the programs are not required to verify prospective and enrolled students' identities, so fraud ringleaders are able to use the identities of others, with or without their consent, to target distance education programs.

Authorities warn that fraud ring participants can exploit institutions, without ever setting foot on any campus.

“Taxpayers fund federal financial assistance programs to permit needy students to obtain a higher education,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a statement. “Stealing these funds robs students of educational opportunities and cheats members of the public from their investment in an educated population.”

According to court documents, the phony aid applications involved mostly Detroit residents who pretended to take college courses from the University of Phoenix and Virginia-based Strayer University, but instead used the free college money for personal expenses.

Here is how federal investigators discovered the alleged scheme.

It started with a tip about a stolen identity being used to apply for student loans. The U.S. Department of Education received the tip on Nov. 3, 2010, and than ran a check on databases – both for college loan and aid applicants. Red flags went up: One database revealed that 30 students who applied for aid had matching demographic information, such as the same addresses or telephone number.

For example:

--An address on Cherrylawn Street in Detroit was used by 17 students. (Sounds like Lena Taylor's house!)

--An address on Sorrento in Detroit was used by 15 students.

--An address on E. State Fair Street in Detroit was used by 13 students; a home next door was used by another five students.



Student records from Strayer University and the University of Phoenix revealed that financial aid refund checks were mailed to those four addresses for 31 students. (How fucking stupid are these two?)



On Feb. 17, 2011 -- three months into the investigation -- federal agents went to the home on Cherrylawn and spoke to resident Nina Cooks, 50, who is one of the defendants charged in the case.



According to court records, Cooks fessed up about everything, admitting that she filled out college aid applications for “straw students,” and pocketed a chunk of their refund checks that were supposed to be used for educational purposes. She also admitted that none of the straw students she enrolled intended to go to school, but just wanted to receive the aid for personal expenses, records show. (Sure, because it's just free money anyway).



Not only did Cooks fill out the applications for aid and college, she said, but she sometimes selected the course and logged into the online courses to ensure attendance was being registered for the straw students she enrolled, records show.



Among the straw students Cooks filled out aid applications for was Sandra Roberts, who, court records state, fraudulently received more than $28,000 in college loans and roughly $6,300 in federal Pell Grants.



Cooks, records show, lied in an application to Strayer University about Roberts having a high school diploma, producing a phony diploma that stated she graduated from Paul K. Cousino High School in Detroit. School records showed the diploma was fraudulent.



In another application to the University of Phoenix, Cooks lied about Roberts graduating in 1986 from Pershing High School in Detroit, records show.



A check with Detroit Public Schools confirmed Roberts did not graduate from any Detroit public high school, records show.



Federal agents eventually interviewed Roberts, who admitted she never completed high school, records show. When she was shown copies of financial aid refund checks issued in her name, “she asked who she had to call to pay them money back.”



According to court documents, Roberts fraudulently received roughly $6,270 in federal Pell Grants, and another nearly $29,000 in loans.



Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com