It seems like things keep getting worse for eager lenders and corrupt university officials involved in the student loan kickback scandals popping up around the country. Sensing this trend, Alabama Contract Sales (a lending company founded by a state representative) ‘fessed up yesterday to federal prosecutors that it had given $83,000 to Roy Johnson, the former chancellor of Alabama’s two-year college system. It only gets juicier with a report in the Birmingham News today that $7,500 of the kickbacks went to an unsuccessful campaign for the Hunstville, Ala. mayoralty. Two birds with one stone! This news will hopefully add some fuel to the trend of lenders coming forward for playing a little I’ll-scratch-yours-if-you-scratch-mine. 

In related news, Wells Fargo agreed yesterday to follow the student lender code of conduct proposed by New York AG Andrew M. Cuomo. A little political grandstanding? Maybe – Spitzer had white-collar crime, Cuomo has student loans. But hey, I’m happy to hear the nation’s fifth largest provider of student loans is pledging to keep their money out of financial aid officers’ pockets.