JERSEY MAYHEM

Woman who defrauded GI Bill is Ocean County College's associate academic affairs VP

Katie Park
Asbury Park Press

One of the two women who pleaded guilty earlier this week to defrauding the GI Bill of $24 million by using her former employer as a conduit for illicit payments was, up until this week, the associate vice president of academic affairs at Ocean County College, a spokeswoman said. 

A headshot of Lisa DiBisceglie, 56, from her LinkedIn profile.

“Today, Ocean County College learned of the guilty plea filed by Dr. Lisa DiBisceglie, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, in relation to her former employment at Caldwell University," Jan Kirsten, the executive director of College Relations at Ocean County College, said in an emailed statement dated from Wednesday. "Pending further investigation, Dr. DiBisceglie has been suspended without pay.  At this time, Ocean County College has no further comment.”

DiBisceglie, 56, and Helen Sechrist, 61, each entered a plea deal and admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in Newark federal court Tuesday. As a result of DiBisceglie's guilty plea, she was required to forfeit the $73,055.73 she gained from the fraud, according to a court document. 

In a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, prosecutors said DiBisceglie, of Lavallette, and Sechrist, of Sandy Level, Virginia, knowingly bilked the GI Bill — a federal education benefits program meant to help veterans who served following Sept. 11, 2001 — of $24 million in tuition benefits by enrolling unsuspecting veterans in online courses. 

DiBisceglie and Sechrist defrauded the federal government from sometime in 2009 to about August 2013, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

At the time the scheme operated, DiBisceglie was the former associate dean of the Office of External Partnerships at Caldwell University, a private liberal arts university in Caldwell, New Jersey. 

Sechrist, who lived in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, during the scheme, was an employee of Ed4Mil LLC, a private business in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, that said it was in the business of "helping military members and their families take advantage of education they have earned while serving our country," according to the U.S. attorney's office. 

Court documents also named David Alvey, the co-owner, founder and president of Ed4Mil, as a co-conspirator, but charges against Alvey, 50, are pending.

Court documents said Alvey — then the owner of JWeb, which had a similar business purpose as Ed4Mil — contacted DiBisceglie sometime in 2009 with a proposal to administer a series of non-credit online classes to military veterans under Caldwell University's name. 

DiBisceglie helped Ed4Mil get approval from Caldwell administration to administer the classes for veterans in Caldwell's name, according to court documents. Later, DiBisceglie, Alvey and fellow co-conspirators submitted an application to the federal government that requested benefits in return for administering the online classes at Caldwell.  

The application falsely said faculty teaching the online courses taught on campus and had been participating in various training over the years, and that students who would enroll in the online classes were "guided by the same standards of academic progress" as students who attended classes on campus. 

In reality, court documents said the online courses were taught via a subcontractor via Ed4Mil, which was not approved to receive GI Bill benefits. 

In the statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office, William Fitzpatrick, the acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey, called the fraud an "elaborate bait-and-switch scheme." 

“Instead of receiving a quality education under the Caldwell brand, the veterans that were recruited by Ed4Mil were enrolled in unapproved online courses without their knowledge, all while members of the conspiracy profited from their hard-earned benefits," Fitzpatrick said in the statement. "Prosecuting fraud against the government is always a top concern of our office, especially when the conduct shamelessly exploits our servicemen and women for financial gain.”

DiBisceglie and Sechrist each face up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing for both is scheduled for Jan. 24. 

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Katie Park: 908-801-4853; kpark@gannettnj.com