Roselle couple plead guilty in financial scheme at COD

A Roselle couple have pleaded guilty to charges related to an elaborate financial scheme in which authorities said they stole roughly $205,000 from the College of DuPage.

Cedric Ramey and Mary Allen, both of the 800 block of Shawnee Trail, entered pleas Friday as part of a negotiated settlement.

Allen pleaded guilty to one count of issuing or delivering a forced document and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. She gets credit for one day served and began serving 14 days on Dec. 13. She will serve another 10-day stretch beginning Jan. 6 and day-for-day "good time" credit will apply.

She also has to repay $1,500 to the college and $7,500 to the U.S. Department of Education.

Her husband, Cedric Ramey, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit a financial crime in excess of $10,000. He will be sentenced March 4.

Neither is affiliated with the Glen Ellyn-based school.

Authorities said that from February 2012 through May 2014 the pair recruited friends to provide personal information they then used to apply for admission to COD and for loans and grants from the Department of Education, awarded through the school.

The recruits then would withdraw from the courses, collect refunds of tuition balances and split the money with Ramey and Allen, authorities said.

The scheme began to unravel in 2013, when a woman told authorities she received a tuition bill from COD but never attended the school. A probe by COD police with assistance from the DuPage County state's attorney's financial crimes unit led authorities to Ramey and Allen. They were charged with more than 20 felony counts.