Gloria Wiley, former owner of the Stenotype Institute of Jacksonville, pleaded guilty to a charge of failure to refund nearly $300,000 in federally insured student aid funds.
Wiley, 56, faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. In addition, the court may impose a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release up to three years.
A sentencing date has not been set.
As part of her plea agreement, Wiley agreed to pay $289,765 in restitution to affected students, the U.S. Department of Education Federal Family Education Loan Program, Pell Grant Program and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Wiley was the owner of Stenotype Institute of Jacksonville, Inc., a school that from 1940 until it closed in 2016 provided professional education to people pursuing careers in fields such as court reporting and medical transcription.
The business was authorized to receive federal student aid funds from the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of its students to cover tuition, fees and living expense stipends. Excess funds drawn on behalf of students were required to be refunded to the U.S. Department of Education or to the student within 45 days.
Beginning in June 2015, instead of refunding the excess refunds, Wiley’s staff began tracking the amounts owed in a spreadsheet. Meanwhile, Wiley continued to draw funds from the school for her personal use.
The school closed in March 2016, after an on-site program review conducted three months earlier by the U.S. Department of Education, discovered the spreadsheet and withheld payments.
Wiley and the Stenotype Institute held, in addition to the excess grants owed to the Department of Education and to former students, $9,000 due to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor.