The breakdown:
- Detroit resident Michelle Denise Hill, 48, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
- From 2015 to 2025, she fraudulently sought federal student aid for more than 80 people enrolled at Wayne County Community College, though they had no intention of pursuing degrees.
- Hill allegedly obtained diplomas for the applicants and completed their online coursework herself to make it appear they were progressing; she generally split the aid proceeds with them.
- The scheme led to about $2.53 million in aid being disbursed; Hill was ordered to repay that amount to the U.S. Department of Education.
A Detroit woman has been sentenced after pleading guilty in March to a decade-long federal student aid fraud scheme.
According to court documents, Michelle Denise Hill, 48, devised and executed a scheme to fraudulently obtain Federal Student Aid funding on behalf of more than 80 students from July 2015 to at least July 2025 – specifically Federal Pell Grants and Federal Direct Student Loans from the U.S. Department of Education.
- Previous coverage –> Detroit woman pleads guilty to $2.5M Federal Student Aid fraud scheme
Investigators say that Hill submitted the aid applications for the students to attend Wayne County Community College in Detroit, though the individuals involved had no interest in actually pursuing a degree.
After securing the high school diplomas necessary for the aid applications — many of them via an online “fast-track” school in Florida — Hill proceeded to complete the purported students’ online coursework from WCCC on her own to create the appearance of academic progress and extend their eligibility for student aid across multiple semesters…