Euclid woman sentenced for student aid fraud scheme

A Euclid woman will spend 5 ½ years in prison for a college student aid scam where she fraudulently obtained more than $205,000.

Over the course of four years, 69-year-old Elizabeth Westmoreland recruited “students” whose identities she could use to fraudulently enroll at several community colleges, including Lakeland Community College. At least one of those “students” was incarcerated while he purported to be attending Lakeland, according to court records.

According to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, the scheme worked like this:

Westmoreland applied for financial aid using the fraudulent students. The aid covered the cost of tuition and other fees, which were sent directly to the schools, but also additional expenses, such as money for books, supplies, transportation and other fees. The money was sent from the U.S. Department of Education.

She and the fraudulent students split the proceeds of the student aid money. Westmoreland arranged for and/or personally completed the coursework online so the students continued to receive aid.

Checks were mailed to an address controlled by Westmoreland. She and others would transport the recruited “students” to various locations to cash the checks and split the proceeds.

According to court records, the U.S. Department of Education was defrauded approximately $178,476 and the Social Security Administration was defrauded approximately $27,267.

“This money was supposed to be used to help legitimate students pay for tuition and cover the cost of books and supplies,” U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman said. “This defendant got hundreds of thousands of dollars because she is a scammer. This prison sentence is deserved.”

Westmoreland is also required to pay $205,743.50 in restitution, according to court records.

She pleaded guilty in August to multiple counts of wire fraud, mail fraud, theft of government property and aggravated identity theft.

Other colleges where fraudulent students were enrolled include Owens Community College, University of Rio Grande and Edison State Community College.