The Washington Post is reporting that its public-records lawsuit exposed widespread GI Bill scams involving for-profit trade schools, uncovering more than $300 million in fraud. It said journalists analyzed databases, thousands of documents and traveled to three states to illuminate the findings. The Post's investigation revealed that veterans sometimes played along in these schemes, enrolling in "ghost" schools primarily to collect housing subsidies. Prosecutors often pursued the operators of these fraudulent schools but rarely targeted the students who participated. One specific case highlighted a self-described former drug dealer with a felony record who fleeced $1.5 million from the GI Bill. He reportedly faced no background check before gaining approval to enroll veterans in his school for police dog handlers.
