Owner of Local Technical Training School Pleads Guilty to Defrauding VA of $29M in Ed Benefits

[TexasTowelie]

Owner of Local Technical Training School Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Department of Veterans Affairs of $29 Million in Education Benefits


SAN DIEGO – Nimesh Shah, owner of Blue Star Learning, a technical training school located in San Diego, pleaded guilty today to defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs out of more than $29 million in Post-9/11 G.I. Bill benefits.

The Post-9/11 G.I. Bill provides veterans and other eligible individuals with assistance for education-related expenses such as tuition and housing. The VA pays tuition and fees directly to the school where the veteran is enrolled, and if the veteran is enrolled on more than a half-time basis, the VA additionally provides a monthly housing allowance directly to the veteran, as well as money for books, supplies, equipment and other expenses.

In order to receive and maintain approval to receive funds from the VA under the Post 9/11 G.I. Bill, Blue Star Learning was required to have at least 15% non-veterans for each course for which the VA was paying educational benefits under the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill, a rule called the “85/15 Rule.” Blue Star Learning was forbidden to engage in any erroneous or misleading advertising.

According to Shah’s plea agreement, from March 2016 to June 2019, he devised a scheme to defraud the VA with regards to Post 9/11 G.I. Bill benefits. Specifically, although Shah knew that close to 100 percent of students at Blue Star Learning were veterans receiving VA educational assistance, Shah repeatedly misrepresented to the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education (CSAAVE) and the VA that Blue Star Learning was in compliance with the 85/15 Rule. In order to deceive CSAAVE and the VA, Shah created, and directed at least three other employees at Blue Star Learning to create, fake student files for the purported non-veterans in each program. Shah additionally emailed the VA 48 fraudulent enrollment agreements for fictitious people he represented were non-veteran students at Blue Star Learning, complete with fraudulent dates of birth, social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers and emails for each fraudulent non-veteran student.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/owner-local-technical-training-school-pleads-guilty-defrauding-department-veterans