Dive Brief:

• Richard and Adale Marie Ceroni, who founded and ran two Carnegie Career College locations in Ohio, were sentenced Wednesday to 69 months and 55 months in prison, respectively, for fraud, the Canton Repository reports.
• The couple helped students submit fake documents to the U.S. Department of Education for financial aid and then used the money to pay for property, go on vacations, and buy jewelry, according to the article.
• Besides prison time, the pair will also have to pay the $2.3 million they got from student financial aid in restitution to the Department of Education.

Dive Insight:

The Ceronis collected fraudulent financial aid money from 2007 through 2011, according to a prior report by the Repository. They did run an actual college, however, and eligible students took classes, paid tuition and tried to get jobs with their credentials. Some were successful but many were not, according to coverage of the case in Ohio. Higher education is a diverse industry, encompassing a host of time-tested, credible institutions along with bad apples, like Carnegie Career College, which lost its accreditation in 2012. In this case, the legal consequences for the Ceronis will repay the Department of Education but will not include restitution to any individual students who may have been harmed by their actions.