Ghana native gets 2 years for student loan fraud

A naturalized U.S. citizen has been sentenced to two years in prison after defrauding a Madison firm and the government to get student loans.

Ernest Kwasi Bankas, 56, originally from Ghana but living in Texas, was sentenced this week by U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb in federal court in Madison.

Bankas, who isn't eligible for parole, also was ordered to pay $340,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Education.

Bankas pleaded guilty in September to a charge of fraudulently obtaining student loans.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bankas' fraud was first detected in 2005 by the Great Lakes Higher Education Corp., a Madison-based student loan company, when the firm began audits of students studying abroad.

The company contacted the Department of Education to investigate Bankas after it learned he forged documents to get student loans to attend the University of Durham in England, after he had already graduated from that institution.

Over the course of several years, Bankas also defaulted on student loans and used fake Social Security numbers to obtain loans, the news release said.

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