How the global media reacted to Axact executive being charged by US in fake degree scam
December 24, 2016
News of an executive of Pakistani company Axact being charged in a US federal court in the $140 million fake degree scandal made headlines across the world.
The news became a source of embarrassment for Pakistan with headlines being carried in leading news outlets in US, Britain, France, India and several other countries.
International news and wire agency Reuters named the scandal ‘fake diploma mill’ scheme and provided details of Umair Hamid the executive of Axact who was charged.
According to a report by Radio Free Europe, Pakistani officials had requested assistance from US in last year’s fake degree scandal. According to the report, US attorney for southern district of New York Preet Bharara said Umair Hamid despite Axact being closed by Pakistani officials following the scandal in May last year kept on selling fake degrees in the US and taking large sums of money for this.
The Hindustan Times ran with the headline: US arrests Pakistani man in fake degrees scam worth $140 million. Other Indian news outlets including NDTV, Economic Times, Deccan Chronicle and First Post also covered the story.
Stories pertaining to the Axact scandal were also covered by US and British newspapers including Metro and Daily Mail.
Other global publications which carried the story include:
In the latest in a global crackdown touched off by arrests in Pakistan last year, Hamid, 30, was arrested on Monday and presented in a federal court in Manhattan over charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scam that impacted tens of thousands of consumers.
In May 2015, Axact had come under microscopic scrutiny when The New York Times’ investigative journalist Declan Walsh broke a scandal shining light on the company’s notorious business of fake degrees. Hamid, who had joined Axact in 2006 as an assistant executive, also came under investigation.
Hamid, however, after making some startling confessions, had escaped imprisonment in Pakistan by volunteering as a prosecution witness.
