The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Wednesday let stand an order requiring the Georgia Department of Education to repay $2 million in fraudulently spent federal grant money.

The case involves a $10.7 million grant that the U.S. Department of Education awarded to Georgia to be distributed to local education entities in 2007 under the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which targeted students at high-poverty, low-performing schools. The money was meant to fund academic enrichment opportunities such as after-school tutorial services, Judge Anne Conway of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, sitting by designation, wrote in a 16-page opinion. The appeals court upheld a final decision by the U.S. secretary of education ordering the Georgia Department of Education to repay $2.1 million.

After a “suspicious activity report” in May 2007 from a local bank, state auditors ultimately uncovered evidence of a “complex fraud scheme” involving several Georgia education department employees, as well as members of the independent external peer review panel and some of the grant recipients who manipulated the outcome of the competition, Conway said. As “a result of apparent collusion and management override of internal controls,” the auditors found the grant competition was “severely flawed.”