A Richmond, Texas man has been sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for a student financial aid fraud that ran for about five years and left victims with tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent loans.
Emmanuel Olugbaike Finnih, 43, was sentenced on Wednesday by United States District Judge Andrew Hanen to 78 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty on 20 March to theft of government funds, fraud, unlawful use or transfer of identity documents, and aggravated identity theft.
Finnih, originally from Nigeria and a naturalised United States citizen, is a former adjunct professor at Texas Southern University. He was allowed to remain on bond and will surrender voluntarily to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility still to be determined.
Over roughly five years he submitted more than 100 fraudulent financial aid applications to the United States Department of Education. The applications used stolen identities of so called straw students at colleges and universities across Texas. He prepared, submitted and signed fraudulent financial aid applications and master promissory notes in the victims’ names. He also created mailing addresses, telephone numbers and email accounts that he controlled, so that he could intercept communications from the Department of Education and the schools.
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