A Detroit man accused of bilking the government out of millions in federal student aid has pleaded guilty to charges, officials said.
Brandon Robinson entered guilty pleas to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old also admitted to filing more than 100 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims between April 2020 and March 2023, receiving more than $1 milion in benefits.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 1. Robinson faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for wire fraud and up to two years for aggravated identity theft.
Robinson's attorney, Doraid Elder, was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
Authorities alleged he led a decade-long, multi-million-dollar Federal Student Aid fraud scheme.
“More than 1,000 fake students," U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Jerome Gorgon said in a statement. "A decade of fraud. This man built an industrial-scale operation to loot federal student aid programs and to steal from the American taxpayer."
Investigators said that from January 2015 to February 2024, Robinson submitted fraudulent student aid claims for more than 1,200 individuals at more than 100 schools in 24 states.
The scheme netted Robinson and his co-conspirators more than $16 million in student aid benefits, according to authorities.
Gorgon said two of Robinson's co-conspirators in the scheme, Antonio Robinson and Joshuan Porter, also pleaded guilty to charges.
Antonio Robinson is scheduled to be sentenced on July 7, and Porter is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 4. Both face a maximum of 20 years in prison.
"Scams like this steal money from hardworking taxpayers and legitimate students, and that is unacceptable," John Woolley, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General Central Regional Office, said in a statement. "The OIG and our law enforcement partners are committed to fighting student aid fraud, and we will continue to aggressively pursue those who participate in these types of crimes."
The case follows others in Michigan involving identity theft and fraud.
Last week, a Detroit man was ordered to stand trial for allegedly stealing others' identities and defrauding the state of $400,000 in pandemic relief.
Last month, a Detroit man accused of a credit card fraud scheme pleaded guilty to federal charges.
Also in April, three Michigan residents were sentenced for their roles in an identity theft and unclaimed property fraud scheme totaling more than half a million dollars.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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