Former Financial Aid Director of Texas College Indicted for Student Financial Aid Fraud

TYLER – A Shreveport, Louisiana mother and son are among those indicted on federal charges in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston today.

Angela Speech, 43; her son, Jeremy Marshall, 24; Devonaire Jones, 35; and Camyl Lewis, 24, were indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 16, 2022, and charged with multiple counts of student financial aid fraud.  Speech and Marshall made initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Love on Dec. 7, 2022.

According to the indictment, between August 2019 and February 2020, Speech was the director of financial aid at Texas College in Tyler.  According to its website, Texas College is a historically black private college founded by Christian Methodist Episcopal Church ministers in 1894.  Speech allegedly used her access to students’ financial aid accounts to trigger financial aid payments to Marshall, Jones, Lewis, and others that they were not entitled or eligible to receive.  Altogether, Speech and these students, aided and abetted by each other and others, knowingly and willfully misapplied, stole, and obtained by fraud, false statement, and forgery funds, assets, and property provided and insured under the Pell Grant Program, the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Programs, and other federal subsidized and unsubsidized loan programs.

If convicted, the defendants each face up to five years in federal prison. The maximum statutory sentence prescribed by Congress is provided here for information purposes, as the sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education—Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Secret Service and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert Austin Wells and Lucas Machicek.

A grand jury indictment is not evidence of guilt.  A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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Davilyn Walston

Public Affairs Officer/Law Enforcement Coordinator

U.S. Attorney’s Office

Eastern District of Texas