Man pretended to be 180 students in Louisiana to get $1.4M in financial aid, jury finds
A 33-year-old Louisiana man was found guilty on all counts after an eight-day trial in which federal prosecutors accused him of orchestrating an elaborate scheme to steal financial aid from nearly 200 students at a local community college.
The jury reached a unanimous verdict against Elliott Sterling on March 16 in the Middle District of Louisiana, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The case centers on allegations that Sterling received more than $1.4 million in federal student loans and grants belonging to students at Baton Rouge Community College by filling out their financial aid forms, enrolling them in classes and managing the bank accounts where their refunds were deposited.
Sterling —who is not a lawyer and who represented himself at trial — has denied the allegations, saying his business “was not a scam.”
“I was paid for my service,” Sterling told McClatchy News in a March 22 phone interview. “My service was to help with the enrollment process because the average student doesn’t understand the enrollment process.”
Sterling operated Sterling Educational Consulting LLC, a company he said contracted with students to enroll them in college with the necessary financial aid. He said he never solicited clients and operated mainly by word-of-mouth.
But the federal government painted a different picture.
The financial aid fraud scheme
A grand jury first indicted Sterling in August 2020 and returned a superseding indictment the following year. According to those documents, Sterling began soliciting students to enroll at Baton Rouge Community College in 2017 and promised some of them free financial aid.
About 8,200 students are enrolled at the college, which is 80 miles northwest of New Orleans.
For two years, prosecutors said, Sterling used students’ personal information to submit applications, enroll them in classes, apply for financial aid, sign promissory notes on their behalf, and create and manage student BankMobile accounts where the financial aid was distributed.
He ultimately received $1.4 million in financial aid on behalf of 180 students, the Justice Department said.
Sterling arranged to have the money deposited into his personal or business bank accounts, prosecutors said. He then kept about 60% of it for himself and doled out smaller sums to the individual students, according to the government. He is accused of keeping all of the loan proceeds for at least 25 students.
“Among the students who received money from Mr. Sterling’s scheme, most were unaware they had signed up for student loans and that Mr. Sterling had signed master promissory notes in their names obligating them to repay the full amount,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “The students were also unaware of the true amount of refunds awarded in their names, and the true amount Mr. Sterling retained as his portion.“
Prosecutors said Sterling lied about the qualifications of 168 students — 145 of whom reportedly didn’t have a high school diploma or GED.
He blew through the required loan counseling for most students in under two minutes, created fake addresses and, at one point, bought 42 diplomas for $5,000 that he would submit to verify a student was eligible for financial aid, prosecutors said.
Sterling often went with the students to campus and showed them how to turn in the documents at the financial aid office, the government said. He also on occasion pretended to be a student or offered to pay someone to impersonate one, court documents state.
“None of the 180 students for whom Mr. Sterling received money progressed academically at BRCC, and 172 failed or withdrew from every class they were enrolled in,” prosecutors said.
Sterling was also accused of submitting a bogus application for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prosecutors said he received $90,000 by lying about the revenues and costs at Sterling Educational Consulting in his application.
Sterling spent over $253,000 of the money he stole through both alleged schemes at casinos in Louisiana, Nevada and Pennsylvania, the government said.
Cousins with Alton Sterling
Sterling tried to have the case thrown out multiple times without the help of legal counsel, court documents show.
Two defense attorneys were appointed to represent Sterling, one of whom he tried unsuccessfully to have removed from the case. Sterling said the lawyer was friends on social media with a defense attorney who represented a police officer accused of fatally shooting his cousin, Alton Sterling.
Police shot and killed 37-year-old Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge outside a convenience store where he was selling CDs on July 5, 2016, The Associated Press reported.
The incident was captured on video, prompting widespread protests and drawing national media attention. Neither of the two white police officers involved in his death were charged — a decision that reportedly angered the Sterling family.
Elliott Sterling later pointed to his cousin’s death as evidence the government targeted him for prosecution, but a judge denied those arguments. He was, however, later allowed to proceed without legal representation.
“I really had no choice,” Sterling told McClatchy News. “I had to represent myself.”
Sterling said he had a contract and verification form “from every person that went through my business.” But he said he had trouble submitting the documents properly and they weren’t allowed at trial.
He insisted his business was legitimate, saying it was registered with the state as an LLC and he had a business account, filed taxes and “created a paper trail.”
“It was everything but a scheme. It wasn’t a scheme,” Sterling said. “I feel like I proved that to the jury.”
Sterling was ultimately convicted on seven counts of wire fraud, two counts of financial aid fraud and six counts of money laundering. He was also ordered to forfeit $422,632.
Sterling told McClatchy News he plans to appeal the verdict but needs an attorney, saying if he files the appeal on his own, the end-result will be the same as the trial.
He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud, 10 years for each count of money laundering and five years for each count of financial aid fraud. A sentencing date has not been set.
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Man pretended to be 180 students in Louisiana to get $1.4M in financial aid, jury finds."
