A Kenyan man who moved to the United States through the Diversity Visa lottery has been charged in a widening investigation into an alleged scheme that used stolen identities to enrol fake students in American colleges and steal federal financial aid.
Francis Mogambi, who arrived in the US in May 2024 after winning the green card lottery, was indicted by a grand jury in Nebraska on October 19, 2026, on five counts of theft of government money and five counts of aggravated identity theft.
US prosecutors allege that between November 2025 and May 2026, Mogambi worked with associates in Kenya to steal the personal information of American citizens and use it to register fictitious students at colleges across the country.
The alleged scheme involved enrolling the fake students and applying for federal financial aid in their names. Once the money was released, Mogambi allegedly diverted the payments to himself, retaining 30 per cent and sending the remainder to his associates in Kenya.
Prosecutors put the intended financial loss in Mogambi's individual case at $20,000. Court documents also allege that he received about $2,000 a week and tried to recruit another person into the operation.
He reportedly told the individual he needed a business that could help him cash larger cheques without paying taxes.
Mogambi was arrested shortly after the indictment was returned and remains in custody as he awaits trial. The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
His case is part of a wider US investigation known as Operation Ghostbusters, which is targeting networks accused of using stolen identities to create fake college enrolments and obtain government student aid.
At a news conference on October 29 announcing the first charges in the investigation, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, who heads the Justice Department's National Fraud Enforcement Division, said authorities would pursue those involved.
According to the Justice Department, the alleged networks used what officials described as “super intelligence” to make the fake students appear genuine by placing them in classrooms and completing coursework. This helped maintain the appearance of active enrolment, allowing financial aid payments to continue.
The investigation has exposed the scale of the suspected fraud. Authorities identified 830,840 potentially fraudulent Federal Student Aid identification numbers linked to nearly $130 million in September and October 2026 and recommended that the US Department of Education disable them.
The figure represents financial aid associated with accounts suspected to be fraudulent, not confirmed losses.
The scheme has also raised concerns about the impact on Americans whose identities are stolen. Victims may discover that student loans have been taken out in their names, leaving them with debts they never incurred.
McDonald cited one such case, saying: “His identity was stolen, his credit is now at risk, and his name is on the bill.”
He also said nearly a third of community college applicants in California in 2024 had been identified as fraudulent.
Investigators say some of the suspected proceeds were transferred outside the US, including to Kenya.
In September 2026, American officials travelled to Kenya to work with local law enforcement on investigations involving extraditions, prosecutions and recovery of money allegedly stolen from US taxpayers.
With assistance from Kenyan investigators, US authorities seized more than $750,000 from a cryptocurrency account belonging to a Kenyan national linked to the wider scheme. The Justice Department described the operation as the first international seizure of its kind in Kenya.
The seizure was not connected to Mogambi's individual case.
Other prosecutions have also revealed alleged links to Kenya. In a separate case in Virginia, prosecutors say a Kenyan national received more than 700 fraudulent student-aid refunds worth approximately $1.44 million. At least $1.3 million was allegedly moved through thousands of transactions involving accounts in the US and Kenya.
In New Jersey, three people have also been charged over their alleged roles as money mules in a scheme that sought to obtain more than $1 million in federal student aid.
Prosecutors allege that the three received the money through US bank accounts, retained part of it and transferred the remainder to alleged co-conspirators in Kenya linked to a purported safari company.
The cases have placed Kenya's alleged role in the wider fraud under scrutiny as investigators follow the movement of funds across borders.
If convicted, Mogambi faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years, according to the Justice Department.
