RICHMOND, Texas – A Richmond man is headed to federal prison after orchestrating a years-long scheme that defrauded the U.S. Department of Education out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in student financial aid — and left real victims buried in fraudulent student loan debt.
Emmanuel Olugbaike Finnih, 43, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen to 78 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Scheme spanned years, targeted hundreds of victims
For approximately five years, Finnih submitted more than 100 fraudulent financial aid applications to the Department of Education using stolen identities of fake “straw students” at colleges and universities across Texas.
Finnih used victims’ personal identifying information to prepare, submit, and sign fraudulent financial aid applications and master promissory notes in their names. He also set up mailing addresses, phone numbers, and email accounts he controlled to intercept communications from the Department of Education and the schools…