The former head of a California technical school has been sentenced to five years in prison in the largest Post-9/11 GI Bill fraud case to date investigated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Justice Department.
Justice officials announced Tuesday that Michael Bostock, founder and CEO at California Technical Academy, or CTA, falsified enrollment numbers and course completion records, impersonated students and provided investigators with fake phone numbers for veteran students so regulators could not contact them about their studies.
The fraud resulted in the loss of nearly $105 million in government funds.
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Over a decade, the school received more than $32 million in tuition payments for 1,793 enrolled veteran students, while veterans enrolled in CTA's VA-approved courses received more than $72 million in education-related benefits, such as housing, book fees and other compensation.
Prosecutors presented evidence that top school officials -- Michael Bostock, Eric Bostock, and Philip Abod -- worked in concert to conceal the fraud, which involved falsifying information to the VA to exaggerate the number of students taking classes.
The trio faked veterans' contact information and answered burner cell phones when contacted by VA auditors, according to the Justice Department.
"Through June 2022, Bostock and his co-conspirators made false and fraudulent representations to the VA regarding, among other things, veterans' enrollment in approved courses of study, class attendance, and grades," Justice Department officials wrote in a press release.
"Bostock and his co-conspirators also falsified course completion records to make it appear as if enrolled veterans completed their programs, when in fact, they had not," officials said.
The for-profit school, a member of the California Association of Private Postsecondary Schools, provided training in computer programming and certification. It closed a year ago, three months before the Bostocks and Abod pleaded guilty to fraud.
Five years is the maximum sentence the defendants could have received. Eric Bostock and Abod are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 19.
The Justice Department worked with the VA Office of Inspector General and the Education Service of the Veterans Benefits Administration to investigate the case.
The Justice Department described the bust as "the largest known incident of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits fraud prosecuted by the department."
-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Military.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.
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