USC Probing Allegations of Fake University Degree Sales

USC officials are investigating allegations that phony degrees, backed up by complete transcripts illegally placed in the university’s computer system, were sold for up to $25,000 each, The Times has learned.

The allegations, if substantiated, would represent the second instance of illegal tampering with the university’s computer to surface since October. Thirty USC students are currently under investigation for allegedly paying to have unauthorized grade changes made on their transcripts.

“Our investigation has widened beyond grade changes,” said USC Vice Provost Sylvia Manning, who is coordinating the university’s probe. “We are now investigating the possibility that someone may have created entire transcripts as well.”

Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Louisville, Ky., said they uncovered information that phony USC degrees were sold during the course of a drug investigation, and that information was later relayed to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Investigators said they were unaware of how many phony degrees reportedly were sold. But doctoral degrees allegedly sold for as much as $25,000, said Jerry E. Snyder, head of the DEA’s Louisville office.

University officials have begun checking transcripts in search of the bogus degrees, Manning said, but said none have turned up yet.

Selling phony degrees “constitutes the most serious kind of white-collar crime--more serious than embezzlement,” Manning said. “Money is just money, but the degree stands for the knowledge and skill that the university is offering its students.

‘A Serious Matter’

“This is a serious matter, but I don’t think we’re at risk,” she added. “We haven’t discovered anything that leads us to believe that 10% of the degrees are phony, for example. We’ve probably had a good warning that we can learn from.”

DEA agents learned of the phony degree scheme after arresting former USC student Merhdad Amini, 27, at the Louisville airport, where he arrived on a Sept. 12 flight from Los Angeles, Snyder said.

Snyder said investigators found two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of cocaine in Amini’s luggage, but the agent would not disclose any details of how his office’s drug investigation turned up information on the alleged bogus degree scheme.

Amini, an Iranian national, and two other men were indicted on charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute the drug. Amini pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Louisville and was released on $100,000 bail. His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 19.

University records show that Amini received a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from USC in 1983 and enrolled as a graduate student in economics last spring. He is not registered for the current semester, Manning said.

Amini, who lives in Beverly Hills, said in an interview that he had heard rumors on campus that students could buy grades and degrees, but said he had no direct knowledge of or involvement in either scheme.

He also denied any involvement in drug trafficking or selling phony degrees, saying he was “set up” on the drug charges by someone who claimed to be his friend.

Beyond confirming that it is investigating whether phony degrees were sold and whether additional students may have paid to have grades changed, the district attorney’s office would not comment further on its investigation.

Focus of Probe

However, a source close to the investigation said the probe is focusing on a group of foreign students who are suspected of selling both grades and degrees. Investigators believe the students worked with a contact who had been employed in the university’s records and registration office until 1983, said the source, who spoke only on condition that he not be identified.

The students collected money for grade changes or bogus degrees, paid the former employee who, in turn, would buy computer passwords--codes giving the access to the computer--from employees in the records and registration office, the source said. The students selling grades then either changed transcripts themselves or paid employees money or cocaine to make the changes, he added.

When the university announced in October that it had initiated disciplinary proceedings against 21 students for allegedly paying to have their grades changed, officials said one employee in records and registration had admitted changing five grades for a payment of $1,500 and was fired in June.

University investigators have since discovered more transcripts with unauthorized grade changes, and nine additional students have been called in for questioning, said Robert Mannes, the university’s dean of student life.

“I’ve written letters to 30 students whose records have been changed in an unauthorized manner,” Mannes said. “Potentially, there are some more.”

Those students will be called before a university conduct review board, which hopes to begin hearings later this month, he said. They face penalties ranging from a reprimand to expulsion from the university.

They could also face criminal charges of “malicious access of a computer,” which carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Investigators believe that phony degrees could have been created by altering legitimate transcripts already in the computer system, said the source. If a student wanted to buy a degree in chemistry, for example, students selling degrees would search the computer files for a legitimate transcript of grades for a graduate with that major.

The name, identification number and other data on the student who had earned that degree would be electronically deleted, and data on the student buying the degree would be substituted, the source said. The bogus transcript would then be filed in the computer system, replacing the legitimate degree.

Robert Morley, associate director of the university’s records and registration office, confirmed that it would be possible to electronically create phony transcripts in such a manner.

Even though transcripts for some graduates who legitimately earned degrees may no longer exist in the computer system because of the changes, the university has records of those degrees in other offices, officials said.

University officials believe they will be able to uncover any bogus degrees and any additional illegal grade changes by checking transcripts against other records at the school, but they admit that it will be a slow, painstaking process.

Manning said university investigators are still considering the possibility that grades could have been changed for some of the students who face university discipline without their knowledge.

Such changes could have been an attempt to confuse investigators, or “they simply could have been mistakes,” she said. Approximately 3,000 legitimate grade changes are processed on the computer each year, said Howard D. Saperston, director of registration and records.

Other transcripts with unauthorized grade changes may surface because the group suspected of selling grades was not able to delete certain information from the computer system, officials said. Transcripts for students on academic probation, for example, carry a remark indicating that probationary status.

Individuals making grade changes could electronically delete those remarks on a computer terminal’s screen. However, they were apparently unaware that special computer codes were necessary to delete the remark from the computer’s memory bank.

As a result, those remarks still appeared on transcripts if a student on probation later ordered a copy of his grades.

University officials are considering writing a computer program that would identify transcripts with any such discrepancies, but that program would not turn up illegal grade changes for students who were not on academic probation.

“People bought grades to get into law school, medical school, graduate school,” said one campus source who asked not to be identified. “Students have graduated who paid to have some of their grades changed.”