A U.S. court has sentenced Nigerian professor Emmanuel Olugbaike Finnih to six and a half years in federal prison for orchestrating a years-long scheme involving fr@udulent student financial aid applications and the misuse of victims’ identities.
Finnih, 43, a naturalised Nigerian and former adjunct professor at Texas Southern University, pleaded guilty in March to theft of government funds, fr@ud, unlawful use or transfer of identity documents and aggravated identity theft.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen sentenced him to 78 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, the Department of Justice said.
Finnih also risks being denaturalised and deported after serving his prison term.
According to the DOJ, Finnih used false identities, transcripts, UPS boxes and bank accounts to carry out the scheme, leaving victims with student loan debt that damaged their credit and affected their ability to enrol in legitimate schools.
Investigators found that over approximately five years, he submitted more than 100 fr@udulent financial aid applications using the identities of numerous people at colleges and universities across Texas.
The applications sought more than $1.3 million in grants and loans, of which $921,189.08 was disbursed.
Finnih allegedly obtained financial aid refunds through electronic transfers, checks and prepaid debit cards sent to addresses or bank accounts he controlled.
The DOJ said some victims were left with tens of thousands of dollars in student loans fraudulently placed in their names.
U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz said, “This fr@udster will now suffer the consequences of his manipulative, deceitful, un-American crimes.”
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