A Louisiana man who funneled students’ financial aid funds to his own bank accounts and falsified business records to get a COVID-19 relief loan has been convicted on several counts of fraud and money laundering, the Associated Press reported. Elliot Sterling was unanimously convicted by a federal jury after an eight-day trial, U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Gathe Jr. said Tuesday in a news release. The charges included five counts of wire fraud connected with a scheme to take money from the Department of Education federal student aid program and another two counts related to defrauding a Small Business Administration loan program designed to help businesses during the pandemic. Sterling was also convicted of six counts of money laundering involving the proceeds of the two wire fraud plans, as well as two counts of financial aid fraud. The jury ordered him to forfeit about $422,600 in proceeds that the FBI seized.
