Mom Accused of Gambling Away Daughters’ Student Loans

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:11:00 GMT

A St. Peters, Mo. woman has been charged with seven counts of forgery for taking out $139,000 in student loans in two of her daughters’ names and for using her 71-year-old mother as a cosigner on the loans, all without consent.

The woman, Cynthia Tiemann, forged seven student loan checks in order to feed a gambling addiction, The Associated Press reports (“Police: Mom Took Out Student Loans to Gamble,” April 3, 2009).

One of Tiemann’s daughters discovered the forgeries nearly 18 months after the unauthorized student loans were taken out.

“Her father suggested that she start learning about her credit so he suggested that she pull her credit report online and that’s when she found out about the student loans that were taken out in her name,” said St. Peters public information officer Melissa Doss (“ Family Fraud: Missouri Mom Accused of Gambling Daughter’s Student Loans,” WDAF Kansas City, April 2, 2009).

The daughters were forced to turn in their mother in order to remove the student loans from their credit reports. The girls, now ages 20 and 22, had to prove that they were each the “victim of a crime.”

“If they weren’t a victim of a crime [removing the loans] would have been impossible for them to do,” Doss said.

Tiemann is being held on a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court today.

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Women Arrested for Trying to Fraudulently Bilk Lenders of $2.2 Million in Student Loans

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:04:00 GMT

Five Seattle women in a mother-daughter bank fraud ring have been arrested for allegedly submitting bogus loan applications and obtaining $690,000 in student loans, “which they used for their own benefit and purposes,” according to an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (“5 Women Arrested in $690,000 Student Loan Scam,” June 10, 2008).

The women, who submitted student loan applications worth about $2.2 million, allegedly stole the identities of people with names similar to their own and used those names as co-signers on loan applications, Joe Velling of the Social Security Administration Inspector General’s Office told the newspaper.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Norman Barbosa said the fraud ring was discovered after one of the victims alerted authorities to discrepancies on her credit report.

“You don’t know about this (fraudulent) loan until you refinance a home or try to make a major purchase,” Barbosa said. “Suddenly you have a $40,000 student loan that you are the co-signer of.”

Authorities do not know how the fraud cases were not discovered sooner during the process schools follow to verify student loan applicants’ enrollment.

If found guilty, the women face up to 30 years in prison and a $1-million fine on the bank fraud charges. They also face an additional two years in prison and a $250,000 fine in the identity theft charges.

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Student Loan Blog : fraudulent student loans

Mom Accused of Gambling Away Daughters’ Student Loans

Women Arrested for Trying to Fraudulently Bilk Lenders of $2.2 Million in Student Loans