A New Jersey man who took money from Delaware State University students to create phony residency documents that allowed them to get in-state tuition has been sentenced to 3 1/2 years in federal prison.
Stephen Williams, 35, a Delaware State graduate from Neptune Township, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Wilmington, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Williams was the mastermind of a scheme that collected approximately $70,000 from 2013 to 2017. While it’s unknown how much money Williams profited, officials said the estimated cost of reduced admissions payments to the university exceeded $3 million.
After Williams collected the payments, he created forged residency documents, like housing leases, and then gave them to his co-defendant, associate registrar Crystal Martin, authorities said. She then placed the paperwork in the student’s file and received a percentage of the fee collected from each student.