NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A former admissions employee for Tennessee State University has been indicted on multiple charges, including fraud, involving federal student aid payments.
The Department of Justice said Tuesday that 31-year-old Renauld Clayton faces a 12-count indictment that includes charges of student loan fraud, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.
Officials said Clayton was working in the admissions office when he changed others’ bank account information and began diverting students’ federal student aid payments to bank accounts under his control.
The university began investigating missing student aid refunds in 2015.
The U.S. Department of Education later found that $84,506 had been misappropriated and that Clayton had fraudulently deposited more than $60,000 into his personal bank accounts, according to a release.
On Friday, Metro Nashville police arrested Clayton, of Chicago, on charges unrelated to this case. Police said he "devised an elaborate scheme" to move stolen money into a bank account he set up using a false name and social security number.
Renauld Clayton, 31, is jailed for 2 separate scams. MNPD Fraud detectives charged him with diverting stolen money to a bank account he set up using a false name. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged him with diverting TSU students' federal aid to bank accounts under his control. pic.twitter.com/96McfVwsuS
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) June 4, 2019
Metro detectives posed as bank employees and arrested him after he presented a fake driver license and signed the withdrawal slip using a false name, police said.
Officers said they also found $9,500 in cash, a counterfeit social security card, a driver license belonging to someone else, and numerous credit/debit cards in his rental car.
Metro police charged him with attempted felony theft, criminal impersonation and criminal simulation. That investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information should call Metro's Fraud Unit at 615-862-7595.
If convicted on the federal charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
