Former online college dean in Orange Beach gets 2 years in student loan fraud case

MOBILE, Ala. — A former college administrator from Foley got 2 years in prison today for using a dead man’s Social Security number to obtain student loans.

The 2-year prison term handed down to Christopher Adalikwu was the minimum set by law for aggravated identity theft.

Adalikwu, 48, admitted in a written plea agreement that he applied for federal financial aid Aug. 19 using the Social Security number of Harvey Akers, who died in 1976. The aid was to pay for a program at Grenoble Graduate School of Business in France.

Adalikwu this past summer lost his job as dean of the business school at Columbia Southern University, an online school based in Orange Beach.

Defense attorney Robert Ratliff said his client accidentally transposed the last two digits when writing down his Social Security in a loan application and knew nothing about Akers. Adalikwu acknowledged that he kept using the number after discovering the error.

Prosecutors contend that Adalikwu used the wrong Social Security number because he had defaulted on $200,000 worth of loans taken out under his legitimate number in the 1990s.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Overstreet noted that Adalikwu has a conviction from the 1980s for making a false statement on a passport application and that agents found documents containing almost 20 Social Security numbers when they searched the defendant’s home.

“He is a consummate scam artist, your honor,” he said. “He just happens to be a well-educated one.”