ADAMS TWP — A township man is accused of taking out more than $260,000 in fraudulent private student loans.

The victims in the alleged scam, investigators said, were lenders and Paul M. Dazen's own stepdaughter.

Rather than using the money for his stepdaughter's college education, according to court documents, Dazen in 2006 and 2007 used the funds to run his cleaning business and to pay for personal expenses.

“The money went for everyday things,” said Butler County Detective Scott Roskovski. “He spent it on groceries, gas and for shopping at malls and stores.”

The magnitude of the suspected fraud left Roskovski dumbfounded.

“How could this have happened?” he asked. “I still can't answer that.”

Dazen was to turn himself in this afternoon for arraignment before District Judge Wayne Seibel in Evans City on 66 felony theft-related counts in the case filed Friday.