Florida woman sentenced for stealing from prepaid college accounts

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A woman who once worked for the Florida Prepaid College Program has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for stealing about $42,000 from parents who had been paying into the system.

Jamilla Ciar Hall was sentenced Tuesday in Tallahassee federal court, according to court records. She pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, mail fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

"This woman abused her position of trust to rob money from the Florida Prepaid program," U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Lawrence Keefe said in a statement. "But worse, she robbed from unsuspecting parents who invested in a future college education for their loved ones."

Florida is one of several states that allow parents to pay for tuition at today’s rates for their children attending college in the future. Hall was working for a company in 2018 called Intuition College Savings Solutions, which was contracted by the Florida Prepaid College Program to provide customer service and records administration services.

According to court documents, Hall accessed accounts and changed mailing and contact information. She then fraudulently submitted forms to cancel the accounts, prosecutors said.

Refund checks for the Florida Prepaid plans she canceled were mailed to the false addresses that she set up, officials said. She personally cashed some of the refund checks and gave some to others to cash, investigators said.