How Kenyans got caught in $130m US ghost student scam
US Assistant Attorney General Colin M McDonald vowed to pursue all those involved In May 2024, Francis Mogambi arrived in the United States after winning the Diversity Visa lottery, a programme that gives people from around the world a chance to become permanent residents. Just over two years later, the Kenyan national found himself at the centre of a US investigation into an alleged nationwide scheme to defraud the federal student aid system. On 19 October 2026, a grand jury in Nebraska indicted Mogambi on five counts of theft of government money and five counts of aggravated identity theft.
