Five people who formerly worked with a Columbus-area theology school, including two women from metro Atlanta, were sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to a multimillion-dollar conspiracy that involved recruiting fake students in order to steal financial aid money.
Led by the school’s former director, the defendants were able to steal $12 million over the course of nearly eight years operating what officials called an “elaborate sham university,” the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday. In addition to multiyear prison sentences, the defendants were ordered to pay restitution of nearly the entire fraud amount to the U.S. Department of Education.
The conspiracy centered around the Columbus branch of the Apex School of Theology, a now-defunct university based in North Carolina. Led by the former director of Apex Columbus, 63-year-old Sandra Anderson of Hampton, the group of school employees and a local tax preparer schemed to recruit fake students and falsify their records so they would be eligible to receive financial aid.
Members of the group completed financial aid applications for the fake students and submitted fake schoolwork to ensure they remained in good standing to receive assistance. The group would then steal the financial aid checks or have the fake students cash them, then take a portion of the checks for themselves, the DOJ said.
The defendants ran the scheme from August 2010 until May 2018 and concealed the conspiracy from the main Apex administration.
Anderson was sentenced to nine years in federal prison. Kristina Parker, 35, of Stone Mountain, was an administrative assistant at the school and received a four-year sentence.
Yolanda Brown Thomas, 51, of Columbus, was an instructor and was sentenced to more than five years in prison. Her husband, 56-year-old Leo Frank Thomas, was also an instructor and received a three-year sentence.
A third instructor, Dorothy Webb of Las Vegas, Nevada, was charged with the rest of the group but died before she could enter a plea.
The final defendant, 49-year-old Erica Montgomery of Fort Mitchell, Alabama, was sentenced to more than four years in prison. She ran a tax preparation business, Dylon Tax Service, and recruited fake students from her pool of clients. She promised people “free money” if they registered as students, court documents said, and assured them they would not have to complete any schoolwork or attend classes.
Once new “students” were recruited, Anderson and Parker ensured they were admitted into the school and submitted financial aid applications on their behalf. After the fake students were admitted, Webb and the Thomases submitted schoolwork and falsified class participation for the students’ online profiles.
Anderson arranged for most of the fake students’ financial aid checks to be sent directly to her at the school, the DOJ said.
The defendants were sentenced in federal court Thursday during a day-long hearing, officials said. All five prison sentences will be followed by three years of supervised release.
