Aim of SWAT-Like Raid Was Student-Aid Fraud; Education Dept. Given Police Powers in 2002
Posted Jun 9, 2011 12:12 PM CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A California man who says agents of the U.S. Department of Education broke down his door has a lawyer and a copy of the search warrant detailing the reason for the raid—a search for financial-aid fraud.
Kenneth Wright originally told News10/KXTV that a SWAT team broke down his door in a search for evidence of his estranged wife’s defaulted student loans. The Stockton man said he was in boxer shorts when officers broke down his door, hauled him out to his front lawn, put him in handcuffs and forced his three children to sit in a squad car for hours.
After retaining a lawyer, Wright released a copy of the search warrant (PDF) that verifies the search but differs on the reason, according to News10 and Fox News. The agents were looking for financial aid applications, tax and wage records, and college attendance records in a probe focusing on student financial-aid fraud.
The agents worked for the Education Department’s Office of Inspector General and were not a SWAT team.
