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For many, student loans mean the difference between going to college and not going. Not so for this “Fraud of the Day” example, found in a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The article tells of a student employee who exploited her position in her university’s financial aid department to embezzle more than $80,000. (Worse still, she didn’t even spend the money on education.)
According to the story, the woman admitted in her plea arrangement that she processed student loan applications for herself and her husband, even though it was against the rules for employees to handle their own application forms. (I doubt she listed fraud as her major.) The embezzlement charge stemmed from her admission to inflating the cost of attendance, then using the money to pay off credit cards and make home repairs. Over the course of two years, she stole an estimated $82,571. (Class dismissed.)
After the former financial aid office employee pleaded guilty to two counts of embezzlement, she was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to repay the money that she stole. (Let’s hope this lesson sticks.)
Taking on student loan debt to pay for higher education may be the right course, as long as you don’t cheat on the tests that come along.
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