Man Posing as Students Convicted in $1.4 Million Loan Scheme

A Louisiana man was convicted on Wednesday of defrauding the federal scholar mortgage system of greater than $1.4 million in an elaborate scheme that concerned posing as college students and hiring impersonators to get monetary help he then pocketed.

The man, Elliott Sterling, of Baton Rouge, obtained grants and loans meant for 180 college students by utilizing their private info to fill out federal monetary help purposes and enroll them in courses at Baton Rouge Community College from September 2017 to November 2019, prosecutors stated.

Mr. Sterling, who was 32 when he was charged in September 2020, took many of the monetary help cash for himself and spent greater than $253,000 of it at casinos in Louisiana, Nevada and Pennsylvania, prosecutors stated.

A jury within the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana convicted Mr. Sterling on 15 counts of wire fraud, monetary help fraud and cash laundering. The F.B.I. had seized about $422,600 of the proceeds, which the jury ordered be forfeited.

Mr. Sterling, who doesn’t have a regulation diploma, represented himself in courtroom this week, saying he was harmless and claiming that he was being punished for “making money,” The Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper, reported. Mr. Sterling didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Saturday.

Edd Cole, particular agent in command of the southwestern regional workplace of the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General, stated in a press release that the workplace was “committed to fighting student aid fraud and will continue to aggressively pursue anyone who orchestrates or participates in these types of crimes.”

Baton Rouge Community College stated in a press release that it hoped that Mr. Elliott’s conviction would deter others “seeking to deceive and misuse the federal student loan process.”

It was not clear how the scheme was found, however the faculty stated it was grateful for the work of “our internal team for uncovering this fraudulent activity” and of federal investigators.

Mr. Sterling first approached potential college students to enroll in courses in September 2017 and supplied to assist them for a price. He additionally promised among the college students that they may get monetary help that they might not must repay.

To gather federal grants and loans, Mr. Sterling used the scholars’ private info and paired it with fraudulent obituaries, fraudulent diplomas and different falsified particulars about their background to finish the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, often known as FAFSA.

Most of the candidates didn’t qualify for federal monetary help with out the faked paperwork, together with 145 college students who had not really acquired a highschool diploma or its equal, equivalent to a G.E.D., and college students who have been incarcerated, prosecutors stated. The college students sometimes didn’t have entry to their accounts with FAFSA, the faculty or the financial institution accounts that acquired the monetary help.

None of the scholars made tutorial progress on the faculty and 172 failed or withdrew from each class they have been enrolled in, prosecutors stated.

In one case, Mr. Sterling collected almost $7,000 in federal scholar help on behalf of a scholar however in the end solely gave the scholar $1,000.

Mr. Sterling hid his position in making ready the monetary help paperwork and signed a kind promising to repay the Department of Education for the mortgage, a grasp promissory notice, posing as the scholar.

Most college students who have been awarded cash advised investigators that they have been unaware that they’d utilized for scholar loans and that Mr. Sterling was the one who had signed notes promising that they might repay the loans.

Mr. Sterling went with lots of the college students to the faculty campus to assist them full the monetary help course of. He additionally often introduced himself as a scholar and supplied to pay people to impersonate college students on the monetary help workplace.

In addition to the scholar mortgage scheme, Mr. Sterling additionally acquired a $90,000 mortgage from the Small Business Administration for his enterprise, Sterling Educational Consulting L.L.C., after he falsified his firm’s income within the software for help meant to assist companies affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr. Sterling’s sentencing is scheduled for July 7.