2 Guilty Of Embezzling $835K From Higher Education Institution: US DOJ

TAMPA, FL — A federal grand jury found two Tampa residents guilty of charges related to embezzling more than $835,000 from an unnamed higher education institution, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Andrea Mitchell, 54, and Lester Best, 53, who were indicted in December 2022, were found guilty Monday of conspiring to commit wire fraud, as well as 22 counts of wire fraud. Mitchell was also found guilty of two counts of aggravated identity theft.

They each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison on each of the conspiracy and fraud counts. Mitchell faces an additional two-year mandatory consecutive sentence on the aggravated identity theft counts, the DOJ said.

A sentencing date hasn’t yet been set.

Mitchell served as financial services manager for the higher education institution, which is in the Middle District of Florida. She, Best and other co-conspirators used her position to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars from the institution, according to the DOJ.

She stole the identities of current and former students at the college and used their student identification numbers to access their student sponsorship accounts. Mitchell identified refunds in these accounts made by the school to a tuition management business and/or a college savings program on behalf of the students and created entries reflecting illusory balances in the students’ sponsorship accounts.

Mitchell used these balances to create the appearance of funds to back fraudulent checks, the DOJ said. She then caused the higher education institution to issue the checks in the names of her co-conspirators, who had been recruited by Best to negotiate the bogus checks and weren’t students at the college.

The co-conspirators cashed or deposited the fraudulent checks at various financial institutions and then shared the proceeds.