In May 2024, Francis Mogambi arrived in the United States after winning the Diversity Visa lottery, a program that gives people from around the world the opportunity to become permanent residents. A little more than two years later, the Kenyan citizen found himself at the center of a US investigation into an alleged domestic scheme to defraud the federal student aid system. On October 19, 2026, a grand jury in Nebraska indicted Mogambi on five counts of theft of government money and five counts. of aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors allege that between November 2025 and May 2026, he worked with associates in Kenya to steal the identities of U.S. citizens and use them to fraudulently enroll fictitious students in U.S. universities. The expected loss in his case was $20,000 (£15,000), according to prosecutors. Court documents say Mogambi received $2,000 a week and attempted to recruit another person into the scheme. He allegedly told the individual that he needed a business that would allow him to cash larger checks without paying taxes. Mogambi was arrested shortly after the indictment was returned and is being held pending trial. He has yet to comment on the allegations against him. His case is part of a broader U.S. investigation, called Operation Ghostbusters, into the alleged use of stolen identities to enroll fictitious students in colleges and claim federal financial aid. US authorities say the investigation has so far led to five indictments involving Kenyan nationals, while another 40 investigations remain open. Hundreds of people have been affected after scammers allegedly stole their personally identifiable information (PII) and used it to access federal student aid. Stolen personal information was sometimes sold online for between $4 and $8, with scammers targeting low-income Americans who had never had the opportunity to attend college. “If you steal taxpayer money, if you exploit a program meant to help students, we are determined to find you and prosecute you,” he said. The Justice Department says those behind the fraud use what is described as “superintelligence” to place fake students in classrooms and complete courses, creating the impression that they are attending college and allowing financial aid payments to continue. “The goal is to keep the ghost student in school as long as possible. Semester after semester after semester stealing taxpayer money,” McDonald said. But the consequences extend beyond the financial losses suffered by the US government. Nearly a third of community college applicants in California in 2024 had been identified as fraudulent. The magnitude of the suspected fraud is significant. Investigators identified 830,840 potentially fraudulent Federal Student Aid identification numbers associated with nearly $130 million in September and October 2026. They recommended that the Department of Education deactivate them. The figure represents financial aid associated with potentially fraudulent accounts, not confirmed losses. “In an instant, the money disappears, often overseas, in places like Kenya,” McDonald said. The investigation has also exposed alleged financial ties between the United States and Kenya. In September, U.S. officials traveled to Kenya to work with local authorities on extraditions, prosecutions and recovery of money allegedly stolen from U.S. taxpayers. With the help of Kenyan investigators, US authorities seized more than $750,000 from a cryptocurrency account belonging to a Kenyan national connected to the broader scheme. The Justice Department described it as the first international seizure of its kind in Kenya. The seizure was not related to Mogambi’s individual case. In a separate case in Virginia, prosecutors allege that a Kenyan citizen received more than 700 fraudulent student aid refunds totaling approximately $1.44 million. At least $1.3 million was subsequently transferred through thousands of transactions to accounts in the United States and Kenya. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, three people have been charged with allegedly acting as money mules in a scheme to obtain more than $1 million in federal student aid. Prosecutors say they received the funds through U.S. bank accounts, kept a portion and transferred the rest to alleged accomplices in Kenya linked to an alleged safari company. If convicted, Mogambi faces a mandatory prison sentence of at least 10 years, according to the Department of Justice. Authorities say those convicted will also face appropriate orders for asset forfeiture and restitution to victims, in addition to any prison sentence.
