United States Attorney Richard B. Roper
Northern District of Texas

DALLAS WOMAN SENTENCED FOR STUDENT LOAN FRAUD SCHEME

DALLAS — Barbara Ann Davis, a Dallas woman who pled guilty in September to an indictment charging financial aid fraud and access device fraud, was sentenced to 14 months in prison, announced U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper of the Northern District of Texas. Characterizing Davis’s crimes as a “betrayal of trust,” U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle sentenced Davis to the maximum term of imprisonment suggested by the federal sentencing guidelines, and required her to pay nearly $10,000 in restitution to the victims of her crimes. She must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons by March 4, 2008.

Davis was arrested in December 2006 on a state arrest warrant. At that time, Mesquite Police Department officers discovered a Dallas County Community College debit card in the name of Davis’s niece and a social security card in the name of another niece. Further investigation by the police department and the Department of Education Office of Inspector General revealed that Davis had filed an application for financial aid on behalf of her niece. Davis told her niece that she was granted a $400 per semester federal Pell Grant; however, Davis failed to inform her niece that she qualified for, and was granted additional student loans. Subsequently, Davis used the debit card provided for her niece’s educational expenses for her own personal enjoyment, spending nearly $10,000 of her niece’s loan on personal items.

At the sentencing hearing, evidence was presented regarding the negative effects of Davis’s crime on her niece’s credit and ability to pay educational expenses.

U.S. Attorney Roper praised the investigative efforts of the Department of Education Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan A. Konig prosecuted the case.

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