ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia returned a sealed indictment Oct. 21 charging a Kenyan national with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and student aid fraud, part of a nationwide investigation the Justice Department announced Thursday at the U.S. attorney's office in Alexandria.

The department said five defendants have been charged across three federal districts — Virginia, Nebraska and New Jersey — in what it calls Operation Ghostbusters, an investigation into people who used stolen American identities to open federal student aid accounts for students who do not exist.

Officials chose the Alexandria office, at 2100 Jamieson Ave., to announce a case spanning three states and two continents. Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, who leads the department's National Fraud Enforcement Division, spoke alongside Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, vice chairman of the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud; Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent; FBI Assistant Director Heith Janke; and Theophani Stamos, the district's first assistant U.S. attorney.