Feds Identify Fraud Ring in Higher Ed Distance Learning Programs
Ineligible prison inmates were enrolled in online college programs as part of a fraud ring set up to steal federal education funding, according to a troubling new report from the Office of the Inspector General.
The federal oversight agency, in a Sept. 26 letter, warned that its investigators had uncovered a series of fraud rings that had misappropriated Title IV funds -- federal money set aside for higher education programs.
Since 2005, there have been 215 criminal convictions stemming from investigations of 42 fraud rings, with $7.5 million in restitution and fines, according to the OIG's letter. Those figures represent just a fraction of the actual participants in the fraud rings and the bulk of the Title IV dollars will never be recovered, the letter concludes.
Among the problems: Title IV funding was set up for bricks-and-mortar schools where students were expected to