RALEIGH — A school director has been charged with plotting to steal approximately $700,000 in student financial aid to help fund a religious leader’s North Carolina ranch.
Brenda Joyce Hall, 51, made her initial court appearance on Thursday to face federal charges including aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit student loan fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The News & Observer reported that Hall’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Hall and others resided at a place in Cumberland County called “The Ranch,” which a tent revival preacher owned and operated, prosecutors said in a news release. Hall operated a home school known as “Halls of Knowledge” from the property.
An indictment says Hall used fabricated high school transcripts to fraudulently acquire hundreds of thousands of dollars in student aid and used the money to fund the operations of the ranch and make other purchases.
The scheme went undetected for several years because Hall and others fraudulently attended and completed online courses, prosecutors said.