07-03-2008, 07:49 AM
Diploma mill ringleader gets 3 years
Quote:Diploma mill ringleader gets 3 years
Bill Morlin
Staff writer
July 2, 2008
Dixie Ellen Randock, a high-school dropout who became the "mastermind" of a Spokane-based operation to sell fraudulent college degrees around the world, was sentenced to three years in federal prison today at a hearing in U.S. District Court.
Judge Lonny Suko said the sentence was appropriate, given the seriousness and degree of fraud.
Her attorney urged the court to allow Randock to serve her sentence at home.
The judge also ordered Randock to complete three years of supervised release when she gets out of prison and submit to strict monitoring of her business and computer activities by federal probation officers. Suko said he would allow Randock to self-report to federal prison once the facility is designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Federal prosecutor George Jacobs urged the court to impose the three-year sentence. He said the fraud scheme she promoted involved the sale of more than 10,000 high school and college degrees and transcripts to purchasers in 131 countries.
Between 1999 and 2005, her operation made $7.4 million by selling degrees from her operation, initally based in Mead and later moved to North Idaho.
Some of the foreign purchasers could have used the phony degrees to get enhanced status to gain entry into the United States – posing what prosecutors called serious homeland security issues.
Randock's husband, Steve, and two other defendants, Heidi Lorhan and Roberta Markishtum, are to be sentenced later today.