Minister Guilty in Aid Fraud

An ordained minister was found guilty Friday of defrauding the federal student aid program by counseling college-bound teenagers to falsely claim they were orphans or came from broken homes so they could qualify for financial assistance.

Prosecutors charged that the Rev. Ozell Clifford Brazil directed the scam from 1996 to 2000 while running the Los Angeles Community Outreach Program, which he founded to help minority high school students get into college.

Brazil conducted seminars on the college application process at Loyola Marymount University, Bethel AME Church and First AME Church, charging students $75 to $250 to attend.

In private meetings, however, he advised students and their parents to lie about their domestic and financial circumstances in order to qualify for college financial aid, some of those same students testified during a four-day trial in U.S. District Court.

Brazil was also found guilty of fabricating stories about students in letters he sent to college aid officers on his organization’s stationery.

“This was all about a dash for cash,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel Nixon told the jury. “This defendant decided he would trump the Department of Education’s rules and determine himself who would get the money.”

The 53-year-old cleric did not take the stand during the trial. Defense attorney Edward Robinson argued that Brazil was well-meaning and may have been given erroneous or misleading information by those he counseled.

But the defense claim was undercut by a secretly recorded meeting Brazil had in 2000 with two undercover federal agents, posing as father and daughter.

When the “father” revealed that his family’s adjusted gross income exceeded $80,000, Brazil told him he had to get that down to about $36,000 if his “daughter” had any hope of receiving financial aid. “I can get you a good tax man who can rewrite some of your W2s,” Brazil added.

As an alternate strategy, Brazil suggested telling college aid officials that the girl’s parents were separated and that she lived with her mother, her sole means of support.

“We have to put you out of the picture,” he told the agent posing as the father.

A federal indictment returned last year identified 13 students who allegedly obtained about $250,000 in aid by making fraudulent claims with Brazil’s help. Several students and parents testified against him after being granted immunity from prosecution. Although the students are not being prosecuted, federal authorities said they must repay the Department of Education, which funds the federal student aid program. They also face possible civil penalties.

Brazil, who holds a law degree and two master’s degrees, was ordained as a minister at First AME Church. He served as a pastor in Lompoc for a year, then returned to Los Angeles to found the outreach program.

U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson allowed him to remain free on bond pending sentencing June 3 on 14 criminal counts of mail fraud and defrauding the federal student aid program. The jury deadlocked on two other counts.

The case was investigated by the Education Department’s inspector general’s office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.