BRISTOL, Va. – A Lebanon couple, both newspaper carriers for the Bristol Herald Courier, were sentenced in federal court Monday, accused of forging the wife’s grandfather’s signature on more than a dozen bogus student loan applications worth nearly a quarter million dollars.
Brian Salyer, 33, and his wife, Miranda, 30, both of Lebanon, Va., pleaded guilty in March to separate charges related to the student loan plot, according to a statement issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia.
Brian Salyer was convicted in U.S. District Court of one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He was sentenced to 45 months in federal prison. Miranda Salyer pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. She was sentenced to four months in federal prison.
They will pay more than $206,454 in restitution.
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Brian McGinn said Miranda Salyer’s grandfather agreed to co-sign for one student loan, intended for her to actually pay for school. Instead, her husband forged his signature on 15 more loan applications, between 2004 and 2007, submitted to lenders based in Colorado, Massachusetts, Florida and New York. They also used information from the grandfather’s driver’s license without his knowledge.
The forged applications netted pay outs of $206,454 in cash.
McGinn said Brian Salyer forged the signatures, leading to his charge of aggravated identity theft. That conviction is an automatic two years added to a sentence.
“The Salyers stole money that was intended to benefit the motivated individuals looking to attend institutions of higher learning,” U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy wrote. “They fraudulently obtained loans by forging signatures and lying to lending institutions. Instead of going to college, they are now going to federal prison.”
cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531
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