LOCAL : 2 More Students Implicated in UC Irvine Exam Stealing

The case against a UC Irvine student charged with stealing exams was expanded and two more students were implicated today in the prosecution of an alleged theft ring.

Kambiz Beniamia Omidi and Bahram Ahmadi, both 21, were named in a complaint today charging that they and a third student, Amir Bagherzadeh, 22, burglarized offices at the university in order to steal tests “for the purpose of later taking the examinations without doing the required course work and thereby receiving academic credit for such courses,” court documents said. Bagherzadeh was charged in February.

The trio allegedly used the stolen tests solely for their own course work, and university officials say there has been no indication that the tests were sold.

The complaint charges that the three students conspired to commit burglary and that Bagherzadeh and Omidi also received stolen property.

The new charges were revealed during a brief hearing for Bagherzadeh at Harbor Municipal Court in Newport Beach. Further action in his case was delayed while warrants for the other two students were being sought. Bagherzadeh was arrested after allegedly using a key to enter the office of the chairman of the molecular biology and biochemistry department. He has pleaded innocent to those charges.

Shortly after his arrest, another student arrested in connection with the thefts was found in a Tijuana hotel with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the chest, authorities said.