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 person, Elliott Sterling, of Baton Rouge, obtained grants and loans supposed for 180 college students through the use of their private data to fill out federal monetary help functions and enroll them in lessons at Baton Rouge Group School from September 2017 to November 2019, prosecutors mentioned.

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

A jury in america District Courtroom for the Center 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 legislation diploma, represented himself in court docket this week, saying he was harmless and claiming that he was being punished for “getting cash,” The Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper, reported. Mr. Sterling didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Saturday.

Edd Cole, particular agent answerable for the southwestern regional workplace of the Division of Training’s Workplace of Inspector Normal, mentioned in an announcement that the workplace was “dedicated to combating scholar help fraud and can proceed to aggressively pursue anybody who orchestrates or participates in most of these crimes.”

Baton Rouge Group School mentioned in an announcement that it hoped that Mr. Elliott’s conviction would deter others “in search of to deceive and misuse the federal scholar mortgage course of.”

It was not clear how the scheme was found, however the college mentioned it was grateful for the work of “our inner group for uncovering this fraudulent exercise” and of federal investigators.

Mr. Sterling first approached potential college students to enroll in lessons in September 2017 and supplied to assist them for a payment. He additionally promised a few of the college students that they may get monetary help that they’d not have to repay.

To gather federal grants and loans, Mr. Sterling used the scholars’ private data and matched it with fraudulent obituaries, fraudulent diplomas and different falsified particulars about their background to finish the Free Utility for Federal Scholar Help, often called FAFSA.

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

Not one of the college students made educational progress on the faculty and 172 failed or withdrew from each class they had been enrolled in, prosecutors mentioned.

In a single case, Mr. Sterling collected practically $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 function in making ready the monetary help paperwork and signed a kind promising to repay the Division of Training for the mortgage, a grasp promissory word, posing as the scholar.

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

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

Along with the scholar mortgage scheme, Mr. Sterling additionally obtained a $90,000 mortgage from the Small Enterprise Administration for his enterprise, Sterling Instructional 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.