Who Are The 135 Feds w/SRU Diplomas?

[Armando Ramos]

Buyers of bogus degrees named

Search: Degree recipients

© The Spokesman-Review
Bill Morlin and Jim Camden
Staff writers
July 28, 2008

Hundreds of people working in military, government and education fields are on a list of almost 10,000 people who bought counterfeit degrees from a Spokane diploma mill.

The complete list, which the U.S. Department of Justice has refused to release to the public, has been obtained by The Spokesman-Review.

“There are people in high places with these degrees,’’ according to one source familiar with the list generated during “Operation Gold Seal.”

The list includes a NASA employee who bought an electrical engineering degree, a U.S. Department of Health oncology expert who bought a doctorate in health-care administration, and two employees with the National Security Agency.

A preliminary database analysis of the list by The Spokesman-Review shows 135 individuals with ties to the military, 39 with links to educational institutions, and 17 employed by government agencies. Those numbers were derived from e-mail addresses which are part of the list obtained by the newspaper.

However, the exact number of individuals with ties to the military, government and education is believed to be far greater because many of those buyers used their personal e-mail accounts.

Dixie Ellen Randock, a high school drop-out who was the mastermind behind the diploma mill operation, was sentenced in early July to three years in prison. Her husband, Steve Randock, is scheduled to be sentenced next week in U.S. District Court.