Middletown Man Convicted of Wire Fraud in $60 Million Virtual School Scam
Phillip Holden, a Middletown man, has been convicted on 17 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. This conviction stems from his involvement in a scheme that fraudulently obtained over $60 million in state education funding through two Indiana online charter schools: Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy. Holden, 65, served as the director of operations for both institutions. The eight-day jury trial took place in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Holden, along with Thomas Stoughton, 77, the founder of both schools, and three other men, engaged in a scheme from at least 2016 to 2018 to inflate student enrollment figures reported to the Indiana Department of Education. This fraudulent reporting led to the Indiana Department of Education overpaying more than $60 million to the virtual schools. Evidence presented at trial showed that employees were directed to stop verifying student intere...
