UIUC Professor Helps Feds Track, Crack Diploma Mill

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Aug 4, 2008 9:23PM

With the assistance of George Gollin, professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Fermilab physicist, helped state and federal officials track and bust a ring accused of issuing phony diplomas worldwide. The investigation, appropriately called Operation Gold Seal, listed almost 10,000 people who had purchased the fake diplomas generated by Dixie and Steven Randock Sr. The couple used a combination of fake institutions (St. Regis University) and unsuspecting existing ones (Chicago Technical School) on their diplomas. The scam was international with buyers based in over 130 countries, some with U.S. government addresses, and reports that government officials in Liberia were bribed. Overall, the scam netted over $7 million for the couple, who were based out of Spokane, Washington.

Degrees were issued in oncology, dentistry and engineering, to name a few. Gollin originally started investigating the pair when he got annoyed with the spam mail constantly filling his email inbox. The feds had started a separate investigation but used Gollin's info to supplement their investigation. "We had this huge data pool out there which is this intricate criminal enterprise, and he was able to make some sense out of it and connect the dots," said Washington state assistant attorney general Jack Zurlini. Gollin added, "There are degrees in areas where you really don't want the practitioner to be incompetent because it would be dangerous." Yeah, no kidding. This even extended to the government. Per the Trib:

It is a crime for federal employees to gain advantage in hiring and promotion by using phony degrees, said Thomas Rice, a senior assistant U.S. attorney in Spokane, whose office prosecuted the case.

In the St. Regis case, degrees may have been sold to people with e-mail addresses from NASA, the military, the Social Security Administration and the National Endowment for the Humanities, according to the list. All might potentially face federal charges, Rice said.

In one case, "We had to recuse ourselves because a deputy United States marshal obtained a degree and allegedly attempted to use it to get a promotion in this district, and he was prosecuted for that in this district," he said.

Photo of George Gollin from his webpage