A 47-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of running a nationwide fraudulent student loan debt relief that stole over $6 million from more than 19,000 victims over three years.
Angela Kathryn Mirabella was arrested Tuesday and was being held in Orange County Jail on no bail, according to inmate records. She was named in an 87-count indictment as the person who filed three fraudulent businesses with the California Secretary of State – Mirabella Group LLC in Huntington Beach and Student Renew LLC and My Financial Solutions LLC in Newport Beach.
The indictment, which includes charges of grand theft by false pretenses, computer access and fraud, as well as unauthorized use of personal identifying information, identifies several others who worked with Mirabella as managers or sales agents to run the scheme.
The charges include special allegations for money laundering in excess of $2.5 million and aggravated white-collar crime.
From May 2017 to March 2020, the defendants operated third-party call centers, reaching out to people who were struggling to make their monthly payments and claiming they could reduce or eliminate their federal student loan debt, said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The call centers contacted about 380,000 student loan holders, officials said. Of the victims, roughly 3,000 were Californians.
The defendants would claim they were associated with the U.S. Department of Education, but some became suspicious, Bonta said. The defendants would then “apply more pressure by implying that their company was the only way to ensure these plans and that their offers applied for a limited time,” Bonta said.
The call centers would then convince victims to give up personal information, which the defendants allegedly used to access and make changes to borrowers’ Federal Student Aid accounts without consent, he said.
The victims would pay upfront fees and additional monthly fees totaling more than $1,000, thinking those fees were going toward their student loans, prosecutors said. But because they stopped paying monthly payments on their actual loans, some received late payment notifications, increased loan balances and some defaulted on their student loans.
The U.S. Department of Education does not charge fees to qualify borrowers for loan forgiveness programs, or other services regarding loan repayment plans, Bonta said.
“Life happens, and whether it be because a person is out of work, faces an unexpected medical bill, or other life change, many struggle to make those monthly payments,” Bonta said. “When greedy companies prey on vulnerable individuals and use misleading tactics to steal from them, they must be held accountable.”
The other defendants were identified as Cesar Sandoval-Vilchis, 35; Stephen Allen Gamboa, 39; Briana Nacole Graham, 35; Matthew Bruce Walsh, 27; Teresa Marie Lovato, 45; and Paulina Francine Pacheco, 32.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General assisted with the investigation.
