A woman hailing from Cascade, Montana recently confessed to charges stemming from illegally receiving a whopping $125,000 in student aid by utilizing a series of schemes that involved fraudulent Native American tribal information and enrolling other members of her family in online classes at various schools without their knowledge or consent. Greed and laziness know no bounds this day and age.
And say, isn’t that cultural appropriation or something like that? Where are all the furious liberals who should be out here screaming, crying, protesting, burning things down? Isn’t that the usual reaction to this sort of thing? No?
“According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana, Ricci Lea Castellanos, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to aggravated identity theft,” TheBlaze is reporting.
“Between January 2016 and December 2019, Castellanos enrolled her family members and others in online classes without their knowledge. The courses were at Great Falls College in Great Falls, Montana, and Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana,” the story continued. “Castellanos and her cohorts applied for and received federal student aid that amounted to $126,219, all of it illegal.”
Along with the illegal aid, the 34-year-old woman, along with a few others, made use of false tribal enrollment forms from a number of different Native American tribes, allowing them to get bigger amounts of money to cover their living expenses. You know, not rewarding someone extra money due to the color of their skin or ethnic background might just put a stop to this sort of thing? Sure beats pandering and watching American taxpayer dollars be flushed swirly down the toilet, wouldn’t you agree?
The main suspect in the case is said to have “diverted the money” after she received it.
“Castellanos even forged the signature of an unnamed individual in order to receive almost $2,500 worth of financial aid to her bank account, before immediately withdrawing the cash. The unidentified woman reported the identity theft to the Great Falls Police Department in Montana,” TheBlaze report continued.
The woman now faces a potential 20 year maximum prison sentence, plus a $250,000 fine, along with three years of supervised release, just for the conspiracy charge by itself. For the charge of aggravated identify theft she’s looking a mandatory two-year prison stay, a $250,000 fine, and one year of supervised release.
Not too long ago, an executive working the media industry was charged with both fraud and identity theft after he impersonated an executive at YouTube, utilizing voice modulating software in order to trick Goldman Sachs into investing $45 million into his company. Guess it seemed like a good idea at the time, huh? Maybe he should have tried to get on Shark Tank? Is that still a thing?
“In late February 2023, a Chinese criminal organization obtained duplicate driver’s licenses by acquiring the personal information of 3,000 Asian-Americans residing in Texas via the dark web. The group used the information to order duplicate driver’s licenses through the Texas Department of Public Safety website,” TheBlaze report concluded.
Just one of many reasons why the federal government should get the heck out of the student loan business.
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