Suspect Is Indicted in Diploma Mill Case

A former professional stage hypnotist was indicted Thursday, accused of defrauding thousands of students out of more than $10 million through a phony diploma mill based in San Clemente.

Ronald Pellar, 73, also known as Ronald Dante, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on nine counts of mail fraud for his alleged operation of Columbia State University, a correspondence school that offered bogus academic degrees in as little as 30 days, authorities said.

“You don’t see these kinds of cases every day,” said Michael M. Farhang, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case. “It was a storefront operation, an office located in San Clemente where people worked the telephones talking to students hoping to enroll. It’s unusual in its very large scope -- a lot of people were affected.”

According to the indictment, Pellar ran the school from 1996 to 1998, advertising in publications and attracting students from throughout the U.S.

Students were charged $1,000 to $4,000 each for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in a variety of subjects, which, they were told, would be awarded under the auspices of a fully accredited faculty made up of PhDs and medical doctors.

But the school was not accredited and had no faculty qualified to grade the students’ work, Farhang said. When students finished their courses, the prosecutor said, they were sent realistic-looking “diplomas.”

“They even had class rings,” he said.