NEW
YORK
Teachers, students and administrators tampered with a
private college’s computer system to change grades and create fake degrees for
money, prosecutors charged Monday. Among the fake degrees given were those for
physicians’ assistants, they said.
The 10 defendants created or altered records for at least 50
people since January, charging fees of $3,000 to $25,000 for better or deleted
grades and for bachelor’s and master’s degrees, District Attorney Robert
Morgenthau said.
Those indicted include Touro
College’s former director of admissions,
the former director of the school’s computer center, three former Touro
students and three public school teachers, Manhattan
prosecutors said.
“One dangerous thing they did was give degrees to
physicians’ assistants,” Morgenthau said.
Records found in the home of Andrique Baron, a former
admissions director at Touro’s campus in Manhattan,
showed he was running the scheme as early as 2003 and possibly earlier,
Morgenthau said.
“We don’t know how many hundreds, maybe thousands, were
involved,” the district attorney said.
