A Baton Rouge man who swiped the identities of 180 students and used their information to apply for student loans in their names, stealing more than $1.8 million in financial aid from the government, is heading to federal prison.
A U.S. Marshal marched Elliot Sterling Jr., 34, out of a downtown Baton Rouge courtroom in handcuffs Tuesday morning after he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson also ordered Sterling to pay more than $2.8 million in restitution to federal authorities and sentenced him to serve three years of probation afterward during a hearing inside the Russell B. Long Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.
“It’s apparent to me that you’re just one of those fellas who will always try to find the easy way out,” the judge told Sterling moments before handing down the sentence.
Sterling faced between 17½ and nearly 22 years in prison, according to a sentencing proposal submitted for Jackson’s consideration. The judge said he didn’t think the evidence warranted such a stiff penalty, noting Sterling was not convicted of a violent offense.
A grand jury indicted Sterling on 14 counts of wire fraud, financial aid fraud and money laundering in August 2020. One more charge was added in a subsequent indictment prosecutors filed 14 months later.
A jury found Sterling guilty of the 15 fraud counts following an eight-day trial last March. The jurors also ordered more than $422,000 of Sterling’s fraudulent proceeds to be seized by the FBI.
According to court documents, he organized an elaborate scheme to defraud the U.S. Department of Education out of federal student loans and grants by masquerading as 180 purported students at Baton Rouge Community College and electronically submitting Free Applications for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSAs. He acquired the students’ private and personal information, then used it to fill out the FAFSA student loan applications, and sign master promissory notes leaving the victims on the hook to repay the loans.
The group of students he enrolled into classes at the school included at least two inmates incarcerated in state prisons at the time and 145 students who didn’t even have high school diplomas or GEDs.
He falsified the qualifications for many of the students, submitting fake transcripts and bogus diplomas to the Department of Education to support his false claims. About 150 of the students listed “Sterling” as their mother’s maiden name as the answer to a security question on federal student loan applications.
Sterling had the student aid funneled into a personal bank account and used it to splurge on himself. Prosecutors said he spent more than $250,000 of the defrauded dollars at casinos across the country.
Evidence that prosecutors presented at trial proved Sterling raked in more than $1.4 million in financial aid payouts.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Jackson said the scam actually cost the Department of Education about $1.8 million in total. Sterling also conned the U.S. Small Business Administration out of another $90,000 by falsifying claims on an application for a emergency relief loan during the pandemic.
The judge ordered Sterling to repay the education department nearly $2.8 million in restitution and reimburse the government for the SBA loan.
Sterling walked into the courtroom about 10 minutes after the hearing was scheduled to begin. He stood next to his defense attorney, Kathryn Burke, with his head bowed and his hands in his pockets through much of the proceedings. He wore a wrinkled dress shirt that was unbuttoned at the cuffs.
Jackson chided him for arriving to court late again, a pattern the judge described as “very habitual” during last year’s trial and for several court dates leading up to it. He also lectured Sterling for being less than candid when answering questions.
The defendant broke down crying as he asked for mercy, telling the judge he was employing business practices he learned in college.
“I don’t want to miss my kids growing up. They won’t have me,” Sterling said. “I just hope that you show leniency on me because I’m not a bad person.”
Jackson made note of the “overwhelming evidence and the sheer number of victims in this case.” He also alluded to Sterling’s criminal history, saying he had two previous insurance fraud convictions in state court for which he was spared prison time.
The judge said he considered the negative ramifications Sterling’s scheme will have on the victims and their families for years to come if they try to acquire student aid benefits or bank loans. He bristled at the notion that Sterling was unaware he was breaking the law, particularly with his history of financial crimes.
“When you tell me that you didn’t know it was a mistake, I don’t believe you,” Jackson said. “I don’t see how you could not have understood that what you did, the many steps you took to deceive people … was not wrong.”
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