Law Schools

Howard 3L Allegedly Earns $430,000 In Last Year... Though The Legal Term Would Be 'Embezzled'

He was also set to work in Biglaw, but I don't think that's going to happen now.

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Turns out ’embezzlement’ is the one crime where it’s hard to find a stock photo of a black man doing it. I hate you, stock photos.

There’s a fairly epic student loan scandal enveloping Howard University just at the moment. Reports have surfaced that Howard officials stole nearly $1,000,000 in student financial funds through a series of fake scholarships and grants. The university has already fired six people.

The Heavy reports on the details of the scam:

[B]ogus grants were “created and awarded to financial aid employees who were also registered for University courses. In some cases, these employees qualified for tuition remission and therefore weren’t charged tuition for their classes. Despite this, they still received large grants and scholarships that exceeded amounts generally awarded to normal students. These grants almost always exceeded legally allowed amounts.”

At or near the center of this scandal is Howard Law 3L Tyrone Hankerson Jr., a former student-employee at the financial aid office. He might also be a “former” law student, but while some people are saying he’s been kicked out of school, Hankerson says he’s still there.

Hankerson allegedly embezzled $429,000 from the Howard between 2014 and 2017.

A student and employee, between 2014 and 2017, Tyrone Hankerson was “repeatedly awarded a $65,000 ‘University Need Based Grant,’” the Medium blogger wrote.

“In 2014, Hankerson was awarded another $22,683 scholarship, labeled as a Mock Trial Scholarship. Sources who have been involved with the mock trial, including past leadership, say the team has never awarded a scholarship of that amount and wouldn’t even have had the budget to accommodate a scholarship of that amount.”

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This is the part where I’m supposed to make an incisive point about the dangers of so-called “merit-based” financial aid. I’m supposed to talk about how we need to reduce the price of law school at its source, and not allow schools to artificially inflate their prices beyond what the market will bear by copious financial aid grants. Going to school should be free, and it would be if we were a country committed to educating our youth.

But… instead of all that, let’s look at Tyrone Hankerson’s Instagram, because the brother was getting stuff with (not) his money.

Tyrone was living his best life.

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Tyrone didn’t think the financially flush times would end after law school. Our sources tell us that he has secured a Biglaw job at Arent Fox. From a tipster:

[Tyrone Hankerson] was a summer intern at Arent Fox in the summers of 2016 and 2017, a current law clerk, and was a recipient of their $15k 2016 Diversity Scholarship. The firm has attempted to remove all evidence of Hankerson being an employee and scholarship recipient.

Screenshots (that have been deleted)

That’s gonna leave a mark.

Above the Law asked Arent Fox about Hankerson’s job status. Here’s a statement from the firm:

Mr. Hankerson’s relationship is now on hold pending the outcome of an investigation. We have no further comment at this time.

Hankerson, for his part, maintains his innocence.

https://twitter.com/AnastasiaElyseW/status/979121349795942400

Hey man, at least he’s not graduating from law school with any debt! And I bet restitution can be discharged through bankruptcy a lot easier than student loans.

Black Twitter Goes In on Howard University Student at Center of Financial Scandal [The Root]
Tyrone Hankerson Jr.: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know [The Heavy]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at [email protected]. He will resist.

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