Nurse Steals Patients’ Identities in Scheme to Obtain Student Loans
Risha Renee Shaw — who graduated in November 2008 as a licensed
practical nurse from Keiser Career College — paid her way through
school by fraudulently obtaining up to $18,000 in student loans,
reports the St. Petersburg Times (“Student Loan Scheme Stole IDs of
Elderly, Police Say,” March 20, 2009).
Arrested last Friday by St. Petersburg police, the 30-year-old Shaw
was charged with two counts each of exploitation of the elderly and
identity theft, and is currently being held at the Pinellas County
Jail on a $40,000 bond.
Apparently, police say, Shaw exploited her relationship as a nurse
with two of her patients and used their identities to obtain two
loans from Sallie Mae, the nation’s largest student loan provider.
Victims included an unnamed 83-year-old man and 80-year old Helga
Holsten, who died in September of last year.
Bob Andelman, Holsten’s son-in-law, was shocked that someone would
steal Holsten’s identity to obtain a loan. He was even more shocked,
according to the St. Petersburg Times, at how poorly executed the
fraud was.
“They put a picture of a young blond woman onto my mother-in-law’s
photo ID,” Andelman said. “But they left all the other information
the same,” including the birth year which still read 1928.
Besides how shoddily the fraud was executed, Andelman was surprised
that no one spotted the fraud, despite inconsistencies with the
photo ID and other documentation.
“All of the document work was incredibly sloppy,” Andelman said. “My
mother-in-law’s name was written differently on every piece of
paper,” he said. Anyone could have spotted that something was wrong
with the applications, or almost anyone, he speculated.
Sallie Mae finally removed the loan from his mother-in-law’s credit
report, Adelman said, after several months of working with the
lender to resolve the situation.