Free Republic

The Justice Department unveiled charges against five people accused of orchestrating a sophisticated campaign to rip off federal financial aid by enrolling “ghost students” who existed only on paper — seizing about $750,000 in ill-gotten funds. The network operated in the US and Kenya, where a phony safari company banked the loot after applying to and then enrolling phony students in college, using stolen identification. The Kenyan scheme is believed to have netted about $2 million. Three of the five defendants — Mabed Utate-Alberto, Patricia Perez and George Mendez — were charged in New Jersey for acting as “money mules”...

Over 7,700 suspected "ghost students" have now been flagged in the Minnesota public education system. This comes as the federal government is working to crack down on fraudsters and scammers across the nation. Scammers known as "ghost students" enroll in colleges, claim financial aid, then disappear with taxpayer funds, and the Minnesota State system, which has 33 colleges and universities, has now identified over 7,700 in the 2024-2025 school year in the public university system. The Minnesota education system was recently given $3 million to verify students as well as identify scammers. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon has previously...

Taxpayers in Arizona spend $125 million each school year funding more than 13,000 students who don’t exist at public schools. That’s because the state school system uses an antique budget approach that causes taxpayers to overpay, says a new report, “Ghost Busters: How to Save $125 Million a Year in Arizona’s Education Budget,” by Goldwater Institute education director Jonathan Butcher. The system pays for some students twice, Butcher says. Here’s how it happens. Arizona schools are funded based on the number of students who attend each school in the prior school year, Butcher’s report says. However, when a student transfers...