A federal court has sentenced a Pensacola woman to prison after authorities say she ran a scheme that sold bogus student loan forgiveness by submitting false documents to the Department of Education, aiming to wipe out more than $6 million in federal debt.
A 38-year-old Florida resident, identified as Nydira Adams and known also as Nadira Adams and Nadira Adams-McMillan, received a two-year prison term for charging borrowers to file fraudulent paperwork tied to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Prosecutors say she presented herself as an expert and collected thousands of dollars from clients who believed she could secure loan relief for them. The guilty plea and sentence stem from a scheme that relied on lies, forged records, and intentional misrepresentations.
Court records describe a business Adams operated under the name Student Loan Default Guru, and they place the scheme’s active period from at least March 2023 through January 2025. Investigators say she marketed a proprietary process while knowingly submitting applications that contained false statements about borrowers’ employment and eligibility. The reported goal was to trick the Department of Education into cancelling loans, and the intended loss to taxpayers was more than $6 million.
According to filings, Adams used multiple falsehoods to claim borrowers met program requirements, including asserting that a California-based borrower worked full-time at a New York religious institution and that another worked full-time for a public school district. Clients paid Adams thousands for services that were based on fabricated employment histories and counterfeit supporting documents. Those falsified submissions were designed to make recipients appear eligible for federal forgiveness they did not qualify for.
“Nydira Adams defrauded the Department of Education out of millions of dollars and preyed upon individuals seeking relief from federal student loan debt,” said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald. “Through lies, misrepresentations, and false documents, Adams abused the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program—a federal program intended to benefit individuals who dedicate at least 10 years of their careers to public service or non-profit work. And she did so to enrich herself. Today’s sentencing sends a clear message: individuals who swindle the Government and taxpayer-funded programs will be held accountable.”
The defendant entered a guilty plea on April 30, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote, who imposed the sentence. In addition to two years behind bars, Adams was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completing the prison term. Officials emphasized that the case was prosecuted by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon C. Thompson handling the matter in court.
“Nydira Adams thought she could game the system and would not get caught, but she was wrong,” said DOE OIG Special Agent in Charge Jamila Davis. “The OIG will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to aggressively pursue those who abuse the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program or any Federal education program for their own selfish purposes. America’s taxpayers and students deserve nothing less.”
Investigators from multiple agencies uncovered the scheme and helped bring it to court, including the Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Eastern Regional Office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in New York. Special agents assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York also contributed to the probe, and prosecutors credited their coordinated work in tracking the fraudulent filings. Authorities say the case shows how coordinated investigative effort can stop attempts to exploit federal programs.
“Through lying, cheating, and manipulation, Ms. Adams devised a scheme to defraud the Department of Education and her clients by depicting herself as someone who held proprietary information on DOE programs, cheating those who truly needed student loan forgiveness and other assistance from the Department of Education,” said USPIS Inspector in Charge Ketty Larco-Ward. “Her actions are unconscionable and today’s sentence sends a message, that no matter who you claim to be, when you lie and steal from the public, postal inspectors and their law enforcement partners will be there to bring you to justice for your criminal activity.”
