STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber announced Oct. 8 that three people, including the last president of Eastern Gateway Community College, have been indicted on felony charges accusing them of siphoning nearly $20 million in federal financial aid through a scheme that ultimately forced the college to close.
Former president Michael Geoghegan and co-owners of the for-profit Student Resource Center, Michael Perik and Nicole Rowe Colclasure, were charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and related counts tied to the alleged diversion of Pell Grants and other student aid, the auditor’s office said.
The indictment centers on the college’s Union Free College Benefit program, launched in 2015, which allowed union members and their families to earn degrees at no cost after grants were applied. The auditor alleges the program was a “financial boondoggle” that improperly drew federal aid for ineligible students while falsifying records to make it appear unions were footing the bill — a maneuver Faber described as “a very simple story about greed.”
By 2023, the program had ballooned to more than 20,000 students, many from out of state, before regulators shut it down. The college closed in September 2025, ending more than 55 years of service to eastern Ohio. Federal auditors separately estimated more than $250 million in Pell grants were drawn down in connection with the alleged scheme.
