The top three executives of Student Loan XPress, the student-loan company that has been accused of offering stock to college financial-aid officers and at least one Education Department employee, have been dismissed, a spokesman confirmed today.
All three of the officials — Michael Shaut, chief executive officer; Fabrizio (Breeze) Balestri, the division’s president; and Robert deRose, vice chairman — were placed on leave in April in the wake of allegations about the stock offers.
The three financial-aid administrators who accepted the stock offer — David Charlow of Columbia University, Catherine C. Thomas of the University of Southern California, and Lawrence W. Burt of the University of Texas at Austin — have all retired or been fired.
Matteo Fontana, the Education Department official, has been suspended. —Kelly Field
