BOSTON - A Suffolk University employee was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with fraudulently obtaining over $40,000 in federal student loan funds by falsifying her own records to make it appear that she was a Suffolk University graduate student when in fact she was not.
Ashley Ciampa, 28, of Medford, was sentenced today for student loan fraud. U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor, IV sentenced Ciampa to two years of probation including six months of home detention with electronic monitoring and restitution in the amount of $47,453. Ciampa pleaded guilty in June 2016.
In 2009, Ciampa began working in the Registrar’s Office at Suffolk University. In 2013, she enrolled in Suffolk’s MBA program free of charge as an employee. In a first-semester business ethics class, Ciampa failed to attend class or complete the required coursework, but instead used her computer access in the Registrar’s Office to assign herself an “A" for the course. In subsequent semesters, she repeatedly assigned herself passing grades for classes she never attended. By maintaining the appearance that she was a graduate student, she was able to borrow $47,453 in federal student loans beginning in 2014, which she spent for vacations and other personal expenses.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Brian Hickey, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General, Region I and II, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Landry of Ortiz’s Major Crimes Unit.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
