Kenyan faces 10 US charges over Sh2.5m student aid fraud

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 30 – A Kenyan man accused of stealing the identities of American citizens to fraudulently obtain government-funded student financial aid has been indicted in the United States, with prosecutors alleging that he worked with accomplices in Kenya to distribute millions of shillings in proceeds.

The US Department of Justice said on Thursday, October 29, that Francis Mogambi faces 10 federal charges, comprising five counts of theft of government money and five counts of aggravated identity theft.

The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Nebraska on October 19 and relates to an alleged cross-border fraud scheme that prosecutors say operated between November 2025 and May 2026.

According to court documents, Mogambi allegedly collaborated with associates in Kenya to obtain personal information belonging to unsuspecting American citizens, use the stolen identities to enrol them in educational institutions and redirect federal student financial aid payments to himself.

Prosecutors allege that he retained 30 per cent of the money obtained through the scheme and transferred the remaining proceeds to his co-conspirators in Kenya.

Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said the investigation was part of a wider crackdown on individuals exploiting America’s education financing programmes at the expense of taxpayers and genuine students.

“Whether you are in Nebraska, New Jersey, Virginia, or Nairobi, we will pursue you,” McDonald said, warning that authorities would track down those involved in stealing identities and taxpayer funds.

Court documents further indicate that Mogambi attempted to recruit another individual into the alleged criminal operation, offering him $2,000 (about Sh259,000) a week to participate.

He reportedly told the prospective recruit that he needed a business that would allow him to cash larger cheques without attracting tax liabilities.

Mogambi was arrested following the indictment and ordered detained pending trial after the court determined that he posed a risk of failing to appear and a threat to public safety.

The charges expose him to mandatory minimum prison sentences of 10 years relating to the aggravated identity theft counts if convicted. The indictment lists an intended loss of $20,000 in his specific case.

The federal indictment follows an earlier investigation by police in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Mogambi had been accused of cashing student financial aid cheques obtained using stolen identities.

Reports identified him as Francis Smith Mogambi, a Lincoln resident who was facing a separate second-degree forgery charge, classified as a Class 2A felony.

Investigators reportedly began examining the case in April after the Lincoln Police Department received a report of suspected fraud at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Student Union.

According to an arrest affidavit cited by the publication, Mogambi allegedly received financial aid cheques issued in the names of people who had been fraudulently enrolled in online colleges, endorsed them to himself and deposited the money into his bank accounts.

Police reportedly established that he had cashed cheques worth approximately $20,397 (about Sh2.56 million).

The cheques were allegedly linked to several institutions, including Grand Canyon University, American Public University, Colorado Technical University, Ultimate Medical Academy and Chemeketa Community College.

Some of the alleged victims only discovered the fraud after loans they had never applied for appeared on their credit records. One victim from Wisconsin told investigators that he had never enrolled at Colorado Technical University and was unaware that financial aid had been issued in his name.

The investigation also involved examining bank records from Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank and Chase Bank.

Mogambi’s prosecution is part of a broader American investigation dubbed Operation Ghostbusters, targeting networks accused of using stolen identities to create fictitious college students and fraudulently obtain federal education funding.

The US Department of Justice said the nationwide investigation had uncovered hundreds of thousands of potentially fraudulent financial aid accounts, with investigators identifying 830,840 potentially fraudulent Federal Student Aid IDs associated with nearly $130 million.

Authorities recommended that the Department of Education disable the accounts as investigations continued.

The department also disclosed that investigators had seized more than $750,000 in cryptocurrency from an account belonging to a Kenyan national connected to the wider fraud network, describing it as the first international seizure of its kind by the National Fraud Enforcement Division.

Investigators believe the broader fraud has been ongoing since at least 2021, with estimates placing the potential losses at more than $200 million.

The operation involves the FBI, the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General and several US Attorney’s Offices, with investigators pursuing cases across multiple states.

Records cited by the Justice Department indicate that Mogambi entered the United States on May 15, 2024, after winning the Diversity Visa lottery. He was issued a DV1 visa and subsequently obtained a Permanent Resident Card.

The charges against him remain allegations, and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.