TYLER, Texas — A former Texas College director of financial aid is accused of using her position to issue financial aid payments to students, including her son, who were not eligible to receive those funds.
Angela Speech, 43, of Shreveport, her son, Jeremy Marshall, 24; Devonaire Jones, 35; and Camyl Lewis, 24, have all been indicted (formally charged) in federal court on multiple counts of student financial aid fraud.
Speech, who served as director of financial aid from August 2019 to February 2020, allegedly used her access to students’ financial aid accounts to go toward financial aid payments for Marshall, Jones, Lewis and others, according to federal court information.
The three others who have been indicted were not eligible to receive the financial aid payments.
Speech and the three students worked together to knowingly misapply, steal and forge property provided and insured under federal subsidized and unsubsidized loan programs, the court information said.
Texas College is a historically Black private college in Tyler founded 1894.
If convicted, the four of them each face up to five years in federal prison. The U.S. Department of Education — Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Secret Service investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Austin Wells and Lucas Machicek prosecuted it.