PADUCAH, KY - Anastacia Dominique Vega-Candelario, age 39, of Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, in Christian County, was sentenced to 1 day imprisonment in United States District Court, Paducah, Kentucky, for making false statements to a financial institution and committing bank fraud, U.S. Attorney Candace G. Hill of the Western District of Kentucky announced today.

Chief Judge Thomas B. Russell, United States District Court, also sentenced Vega-Candelario to 5 years supervised release following incarceration.  There is no parole in the federal judicial system.  In addition, restitution in the amount of $68,655.29 was imposed.

Vega-Candelario had pled guilty on October 27, 2009 and admitted that on or about February 1, 2003, she knowingly made a false statement in loan application documents for the purpose of influencing a federally-insured financial institution in the Western District of Louisiana, when she knew that she had falsely used a social security account number that was not her own, in order to obtain approval for the loan.  Vega-Candelario further admitted that from about January 25, 2003 to on or about March 23, 2006, she knowingly executed or attempted to execute a scheme to defraud and to obtain money and funds in the custody and control of a federally-insured financial institution in the Western District of Louisiana, through her knowing use of a false social security account number and other false documents, in order to obtain approval of loan proceeds.

The funds and proceeds were sought as student loans for herself and her husband.  The amount of the financial aid obtained from the false statements and fraud was $68,655.29.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David Sparks, and it was investigated by the United States Department of Education, Office of the Inspector General.