Financial aid swindler gets three years

A federal judge in Oakland sentenced a 29-year-old man to 37 months in prison Friday for defrauding the government out of more than $500,000 in student loans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

U.S. District Court Judge John Tigar handed down the sentence on Kyle Edward Moore and required him to serve three years of supervised release and pay back the amount he stole from the federal government, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag reported.

Moore, of Hayward, was convicted in February on two counts of conspiracy to commit financial aid fraud and one count of wire fraud for preparing loan applications with “straw students,” people who had no intention of attending school, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag reported.

A federal grand jury indicted Moore and three co-defendants on multiple charges in 2013 and he later agreed to plead guilty to the two felony counts, according to Haag.

Moore and his co-defendants recruited people to serve as straw students, helped them prepare, sign and transmit Free Applications for Federal Student Aid to the U.S. Department of Education, under Title IV of the Student Assistance Program, Haag reported.

The defendants knew that the applicants were not eligible to obtain Title IV student aid funds because they did not hold high school diplomas or the equivalent, did not intend to go to school or to use the money for educational purposes, federal prosecutors said.

Moore shared the funds from the scheme with the co-defendants and sometime the straw students, Haag said.

He admitted to trying to steal $771,268 and successfully stole $520,904, according to prosecutors.