Columbia University Official Busted in $350G Financial Aid Kickback Scheme

By Erin Durkin

A Columbia University official fraudulently pocketed $350,000 in financial aid funds in a years-long kickback scheme with three students, prosecutors charged Thursday.

Melanie Williams-Bethea, the former director of financial aid at Columbia’s Teachers College, and the students were arrested and hit with bribery, conspiracy, and wire fraud charges.

Since 2008, Williams-Bethea had been falsifying documents to get the students financial aid they didn’t deserve — and then taking a portion of the money as a kickback for herself, according to a criminal complaint.

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Source: The New York Daily News (via Empire Report New York)