William E. Grobes IV; $4.5 Million GI Bill Fraud
Pat sends us a link to the story of William E. Grobes IV of Chesapeake, VA who pleaded guilty to defrauding the Veterans’ Affairs Department. According to the Justice Department, Grobes ran a barbering and cosmetology school, College of Beauty and Barber Culture (CBBC), for veterans that only required that students sign in every day.
College of Beauty and Barber Culture (CBBC) was purportedly a barber and cosmetology school approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide education and training to military veterans, including veterans who received tuition assistance under the Post-9/11 GI Bill. Grobes represented to the VA that CBBC provided full-time schooling to hundreds of veteran students beginning in October 2011. In reality, the school was a sham. Most veterans enrolled in CBBC courses received few, if any, hours of instruction from CBBC employees, and there were no tests, exams, or practical exercises given. Rather, students were directed to simply sign in and out of the school each day so that Grobes could report to the VA that they were enrolled and attending. In exchange, CBBC received Post-9/11 GI Bill tuition payments for each veteran from the VA. Based on Grobes’ provision of false information to the VA concerning the number of hours of instruction and the manner and quality of the instruction provided to veteran students, CBBC received over $4.5 million in Post-9/11 GI Bill tuition payments between October 2011 and September 2016.
He faces sentencing in March and a maximum penalty of twenty years locked up.
Category: Crime
“Go big or go home.”
Or in this case, to the “Big House”.
Faq’heem.
He’ll be a welcomed addition to some poundhimintheassprison, where he can enjoy the 24 hour BTJT Deli (home of the cockmeat sammich) and intense “anal dilation therapy” sessions.
(BTJT = Bubba, Thor, Julio and Mr. “Tiny”)
Given his alleged profession, he can at least administer Brazilian waxes to BTJT so their sacks won’t chafe his chin as much
I’m guessing he a pro at “anal bleaching”
Ending to Charles Brunson’s movie, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects
What did these “student veterans” get out of this?
This smells like a dead cat under the house.
Yeah, it seems to me that the Veterans would have been a tad miffed at receiving no instruction at all. I mean, it’s one thing to take a do nothing, 3-credit course among the dozens required for an A.A. or B.A., but it’s quite another to have zero instruction when licensure is the goal and learning a trade or craft is essential. I can’t help but wonder whether there wasn’t more fraud than is indicated. I’m thinking of bogus students who were paid to sign up for something they didn’t need or want. This assumes that the students were truly Veterans and who they said they were, too.
Chicago style WW1 Era student veterans?
Chicago style WWI Era student veteran voters.
FIFY
NOPE. The students got paid TOO, for not doin’ nuthin’ !
They got the post 9/11 GI Bill BAH. If you aren’t really interested in going to school, but still wanted the money, this would have been the scam for you..
Plus, who knows, maybe they got a barbering license.
Current amount E5 w/dependents for that zip is $2258 – tax free
Yes,
It would be a double dip Scam. the School would get paid, plus the Students would get paid to attend. If the School didn’t want to put the effort into teaching and the students just wanted a check it would work out for both.
The students could have actually learned enough to apply it to a job, or like I said gotten paid to go and then just took the cert asnd worked somewhere else.
Its probably a matter of someone catching on that it was 3 months of Instruction ” crammed into” two years.
In order for the scammer to receive the benefits from the VA, he would have to have produces a NOBE from the VA for each veteran enrolled, which he would have to get from the individual veteran.
There is no chance that there were fake veterans, as the VA controls and is involved in each step of the VA educational eligibility and benefit payment process. IOW, you have to be in the VA system to even begin the process. What the student veterans got was their monthly stipend without having to attend the course.
So, there was plenty of fraud being committed by the veterans too, most likely.
Thanks, SGT Ted. I wasn’t sure how that would have worked.
Disappointed in the vets involved. Hope they are prosecuted as well.
Show up long enough to sign in, get your monthly VA “educational” payment.
Nah. No one who served in the military would stoop to such a scam… We didn’t need padlocks on our wall lockers, either.
It like we enlist humans or something.
And -this- sort of crap is why so many non-vets assume vets are all on the take, scamming something somewhere. Police our own ranks, or suffer the consequences.
The unfortunate reality is that in any organization where humans are involved, there will be someone who tries to game the system for personal gain – monetary or otherwise.
Military, church, school, work, Chamber of Commerce, or service club – we have to watch out for both ourselves and for others.
How many veterans want to go into cosmetology?
Go to 8:53… possibly NSFW
Thank you Daisy Cutter. That was rolling around in my head as well. How many veterans are wanting to stand in a beauty shop, smelling permanent chemicals all day and asking, “You want highlights in this today? How about an up-do with a french braid? It’s just so…in now!”
I suspect the new demographics that Mabus and company are actively attracting…as to other culpability, I agree with comments that this couldn’t have really happened without probable collusion with vets…a kickback scheme of sorts..if he was running this school in Virginia, he would have fallen under the purview of the Board of Cosmetology which credentials schools (as well as licensing barbers and hair dressers)…makes me wonder where was its oversight…perhaps then again, they happened upon the scheme and took action…whats a bit ironic is that the board allows prisoners to learn this skill in prison (one of the few professions that they are able to practice) and apply for licensing. Maybe our boy can find some means to loot that program as well….
Who wants to go into cosmetology? Remember Emmanuelle Chriqui running the beauty shop in “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”? HELL yes!!!
Because after doing what I did, who wants to be bothered with a second degree or grad school? Yeah, I wanna be a barber, dammit!
Just SMH.
$4.5 million? That’s a lot of damn barbers and cosmetologists. Also, as far as I know every state requires a test be given and passed by the state licensing board in order to practice. Wonder why the VA never saw or looked for any certification documents? Why no students of CBBC ever received a license to practice? I saw many, many folks after Vietnam who used their GI Bill to great benefit and I am truly thankful for what it gave me. But some took the easy road, used up their benefit and came away with nothing to make a life with. IOW, that truck driving course looks good at first blush but without considering the lifestyle it requires…you may as well reenlist.
That’s almost $1 million a year for barber college….
I hope they burn those fucking students that were involved in this shit too.
Schedule of Tuition:
The Nail Technology Program is a bargain at $5,395.
http://www.maxivy.com/cbbcva/page/tuition-and-fees
Maybe they all went to nearby Ft Lee with their “degrees” to get the coveted barber jobs on post…how hard can a quarter in high and tight be??
On the other hand, this situation would explain some of the damn poor haircuts I have received in my travels to that part of the Commonwealth…
Did all the students at his school argue about boxing and meeting Martin Luther the King?
I wonder if he went to school at the All-Points Logistics School of Executive Management.
This dude has Phildo’s fingerprints all over him.
The corporation shows Katherine Grobes, same address, as the registered agent. The entity was registered on 4/16/2009 and is authorized one share of stock.
It should not be presumed that Katherine is owner of that sole share of equitable interest or, for that matter, that William IV is either. Previously, that same dba name was held as a Limited Liability Corporation. Those records have been purged.
The present form of organization is as a regular corporation, no doubt to conceal William’s association with the entity. It wouldn’t be a great surprise to learn that the single share of stock is owned by another corporation… Willexi Enterprises, Inc., remarkably enough, located at the same address!
He has instructor licenses, as does Katherine Grobes. http://www.dpor.virginia.gov/LicenseLookup/
I wonder if the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation should know about them. /s
If the IRS paid bounty, I’d be getting a boner on this case.
Wouldn’t you guess? Billy Grobes is also a USPS mail clerk. Gotta wonder what a postal inspector would think about one of their folks defrauding the federal government, not that he’s any more blatant than Pelosi’s private government jetliner.
Maybe he teaches barbering at night? Or maybe there is another Billy Grobes in Chesapeake.
That would be Billy Grobes——The Freaking Fourth!
According to the Virginia Pilot,”of the more than 350 veterans enrolled there in that time period, only 11 took the state licensing exam. Only seven passed and got a barber or cosmetology license, according to court documents…no veterans have been charged.”
http://pilotonline.com/news/local/crime/chesapeake-barber-school-received-millions-to-teach-veterans-instead-the/article_8691efcd-6cf1-5103-9e9f-5463921450a2.html
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the veterans involved in this scam are offering their testimony in exchange for not being charged. 😉
Cocksucker.