North Carolina Woman Admits Scamming Education Department for $5 Million in Financial Aid
“through an elaborate, years-long ‘straw student’ scheme”
That is an impressive haul. Unfortunately for this woman, she now faces up to 20 years in prison.
USA Today reports:
Woman admits bilking $5M from Department of Education in ‘straw students’ scam
A North Carolina woman admitted to scamming the Department of Education out of $5 million in financial aid money through an elaborate, years-long “straw student” scheme, officials announced Wednesday.
Cynthia Denise Melvin of Fayetteville orchestrated a scam that involved recruiting over 70 “student participants,” according to federal court filings. She applied to schools on their behalf, applied for federal financial aid and then attempted to even make it appear like they were attending class. Meanwhile, she and the students pocketed the money.
Melvin, 59, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the theft of millions from the federal student aid program, federal prosecutors said. At sentencing later this year, Melvin faces a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years, a $250,000 fine, and three years of supervised release. Melvin will also be required to pay restitution.
The scam is among the biggest “straw student” schemes in years, according to a USA TODAY review of Department of Justice news announcements. Melvin ran the scheme from 2016 to 2023, prosecutors said.
Charging documents out of the Eastern District of North Carolina don’t name the student participants that Melvin recruited for the scheme but state they were recruited to apply for and enroll in college programs across the state. Her attorney, Kevin M. Marcilliat, declined to comment, citing upcoming court proceedings.
Melvin’s class of straw students enrolled in multiple schools of higher education in North Carolina, including community colleges in Wake, Cumberland and New Hanover counties, court filings say.
She applied to the schools on behalf of the students and even went so far as to impersonate them so it appeared they were attending class, completing class assignments and communicating with the schools, according to charging documents.
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Comments
I hope DOGE will figure out a way to stop this kind of scam.
Meanwhile, about that money that was sent to Ukraine or the Feeding Our Kids fiasco up in Minnesota that scammed $250,000,000.