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Friday, August 12, 2022

A New Con

First came phony unemployment insurance scams. Then came phony community college enrollment scams. Now comes UC/CSU tuition waiver scams. From the LA Times:

A Los Angeles man has been arrested for counterfeiting tuition waivers for families of veterans, duping University of California and California State University schools out of half a million dollars in the process, state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced. Don Azul was taken into custody Wednesday for allegedly posing as a contractor for CalVet’s College Fee Waiver for Veteran Dependents program, which offers free college tuition to attend UC or CSU schools to family members of veterans who have “service-related” disabilities. Prosecutors say Azul lied to more than 40 non-eligible military families and charged them hundreds of dollars for counterfeited letters purporting to approve them for the program. After giving them the letters, Azul urged the families to submit them to schools, according to prosecutors. 

His scheme fooled the colleges as well and resulted in the state losing more than $500,000 in fraudulently obtained tuition waivers for the families at 23 schools... Each waiver letter saved families about $5,800 from CSU schools and about $12,000 from UCs...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-11/uc-csu-college-tuition-scheme-targeted-veterans.

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