DETROIT – A Detroit woman due in federal court this week is accused of running a decade-long scheme that used other people’s identities to obtain millions of dollars in federal student aid — and then routed much of that money back to herself through bank accounts, debit cards and Cash App transfers, according to a federal criminal complaint filed in Wayne County.
Michelle Denise Hill is charged with wire fraud for an alleged operation that stretched from July 2015 to July 2025 in Wayne County and beyong, according to a federal complaint.
Federal student aid fraud schemes often follow a familiar pattern, investigators wrote: ringleader recruits “straw” students, enrolls them in online courses, submits their financial aid applications and then ensures refund money is redirected after tuition is paid…