Thursday, January 26, 2012

EXCLUSIVE: Woman Arrested in T-Mobile Tuition Scam in Augusta


An arrest has been made in the investigation of T-Mobile employees who stole hundreds of thousands from the company after filing fraudulent claims for tuition reimbursement in Augusta.

Shantae Evans, 33, has been charged with five felony counts of theft by deception and is sitting in the Richmond County Jail this morning under $28,500 bond.

Evans, a former T-Mobile employee, was allegedly involved in the tuition scheme and received a cut of the money. According to a report, numerous T-Mobile employees filed fraudulent claims to receive tuition reimbursements for continued education classes that they did not take.

The employees would provide the needed information for the claims to a current employee, who would pass the information on to another employee as well as Evans.

"The Evans suspect would access the company's web site and file the fraudulent claims for each employee, which ranged between $4,000 and $5,000 each," a report says.

Other arrests are possible. A T-Mobile loss prevention investigator told deputies that dozens of employees from the call center on Wheeler Road are believed to be involved in the fraud. The total amount of money claimed is believed to be around $200,000.