REPORT: A private Jewish Michigan college committed fraud over the past decade, leading to millions of federal dollars being sent to the West Bloomfield school to pay for the education of students who weren’t enrolled there, according to the federal Department of Education.
The school remains open. It’s unclear whether criminal charges will be pursued.
Pell Grants are awarded to low-income students to help cover the costs of attending college. They do not need to be paid back. For 2015-16, the maximum Pell Grant is $5,775.
In a 17-page letter to the Michigan Jewish Institute, the department outlines more than 2,000 cases where Pell Grant funds were sent to the school to pay for students who were in Israel studying and never took one class at MJI. A total dollar amount of fraudulent Pell Grants to the school is not known.
The institute is tied to the local chapter of the Chabad-Lubavitch, an Orthodox Jewish group with a growing campus in West Bloomfield. Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov is president of the institute and spiritual director of the Shul. The Shul is part of the Campus of Living Judaism. The school was founded in 1994.
“The evidence the department has reviewed shows that many, if not most, of MJI students had no interest in obtaining, or intention of receiving, a degree or certificate offered by MJI,” says a Feb. 29 letter to the school from the department. It was obtained by the Free Press.
“Rather,” the letter continues, “they were ‘enrolled’ in MJI, and by MJI, for the sole purpose of getting MJI Pell Grants while these students ‘studied abroad.’ Such abuse of the Pell Grant program is unacceptable.”
