RA Touro Scammer to Slammer

[Herbert Spencer]

DIPLOMA MILL SCAMMER SENTENCED TO PRISON IN MANHATTAN

By LAURA ITALIANO

Last updated: 3:50 pm
July 31, 2009
Posted: 3:35 pm
July 31, 2009

A second Touro College computer honcho is going to prison for running his office as a literal diploma mill -- pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars from students seeking better transcripts, glowing letters of recommendation and in a few cases completely fabricated degrees.

"This was a horrendous betrayal of trust," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber told the crook, Andrique Baron, 36, of Elmont, L.I., before sentencing him this afternoon to serve between 2 2/3 and 8 years prison.

Baron was the former director of admissions for Touro's School of Career and Applied Studies on West 23rd St.

For at least four years, he and his co-defendant -- Mikhail "Michael" Cherner, the former computer director at the Kings Highway, Brooklyn, campus -- took money from a dozen students, who were also charged, in a "Sawbucks-for-Sheepskins" scandal that became public two years ago.

Some of Cherner and Baron's "customers" merely changed "F's" to "A's" on their transcripts.

Three teachers paid $3,000 each to buy the Masters degree required to teach special ed.

A Queens man bought a bogus psychology masters, while a Brooklyn woman bought her bachelors without taking a single class, and a fake letter of recommendation to law school went for $50,000.

When the scandal broke, prosecutors said they feared the pair had sold doctored degrees to as many as 50 people -- including some for physicians assistants and physical therapists.

The Board of Ed, which issues licenses in these fields, had to sift through the credentials of thousands of Touro alumni to be sure there were no bogus teachers, therapists or medical personnel working in the city, said prosecutor Jonathan Lenzner.

The horrible publicity affected everything from accreditation to admissions to the ability to get bank loans, said Frank Snitow, a lawyer for the college, which has 17,000 students internationally.

Baron apologized in court, peevishly -- bemoaning he didn't get a "second chance" -- before being led out in cuffs.

Note that this is MSCHE-accredited Touro College, in New York, not the former Touro University International, now WASC-accredited TUI University, in California.

Another regionally accredited university selling degrees.  Why isn't somebody at CHEA looking into this?

[Fort Bragg]

Why isn't somebody at CHEA looking into this?

The lights are on but nobody's home.

[ham]

Why isn't somebody at CHEA looking into this?

The lights are on but nobody's home.

Remember Irving...Hayward...Churchill?
Remember Mosley?
He wore his 'shame' on his face, but his peers decided that time and truth ought to better be the gentlemen and fair players they are supposed to be and look elsewhere.
The day F-1 executive Mosley stepped on some very big feet, guess what?
He's a 'fascist nut' just like his father, and a sexual predator, and this & that...
George wouldn't be able to go through all that, so he'd better be quiet...or someone might have a look at his closet and not look elsewhere, this time.

[Martin Eisenstadt]

The lights are on but nobody's home.

So it would appear, although there is some doubt about the lights too.

Let's see, West Virginia University (NCACS, AACSB) issued the WV governor's daughter an "executive" MBA after completing only 36 of the required 48 units.

CHEA director George Gollin's reaction: (None.)


SACS-accredited VCU awards the Richmond police chief a degree on only 6 of 30 required units.

CHEA director George Gollin's reaction: (None.)


After being sexually exploited by a biochemistry professor at NCACS-accredited University of Illinois, former student storms NCACS-accredited Northern Illinois University lecture hall on Valentine's Day, killing five students and wounding more than 15 before killing himself.

CHEA director George Gollin's reaction: (None.)


NCACS-accredited University of Illinois board Chairman Niranjan Shah gets his son-in-law a work visa, a $115,000 job at the university, and then suggests admitting him to a PhD program in business, to which he hadn't even applied.  Gollin's wife, Melanie Loots, is the university's Conflict of Interest Officer.

CHEA director George Gollin's reaction: "I got an unsolicited "Degree" in the mail yesterday: a sample of "Degree Deodorant," which offers "Mind-Blowing Protection."

Something at CHEA stinks, and I don't think deodorant is going to make it go away.

[Herbert Spencer]

After being sexually exploited by a biochemistry professor at NCACS-accredited University of Illinois, former student storms NCACS-accredited Northern Illinois University lecture hall on Valentine's Day, killing five students and wounding more than 15 before killing himself.

CHEA director George Gollin's reaction: (None.)

I ain't no college perfesser, but isn't having sex with your students (male or female) considered a breach of ethics and a conflict of interest most places?  

Where was the U of Illinois Conflict of Interest Officer while all this was going on?  It's been in all the papers, hasn't she heard about it yet??  Did five innocent students die because Melanie Loots wasn't doing her job?   Sure looks that way to me.

[Dickie Billericay]

Did five innocent students die because Melanie Loots wasn't doing her job?   Sure looks that way to me.

Let's hope she gets sentenced by a judge who is a trustee for a rival university.  It's been known to happen.