Walsh’s devastating investigation exposed the millions of dollars that a covert Pakistani software company with the catchphrase “winning and caring” made from the sale of phony credentials all around the world. The degrees were not really accredited. There was only an online version of the university campus. The educators were compensated actors.
Shoaib Shaikh, a young guy who presented himself as a self-made millionaire with a passion for charity and aspirations to educate 10 million children in Pakistan, was the CEO of Axact, the business responsible for this enormous swindle.
With more than 2,000 passengers, Shaikh ran axact out of the port city of Karachi. The majority of them were round-the-clock telephone sales representatives operating in shifts. Their primary role involved acting as instructors and advisors.
The agents would frequently utilize tricks to increase revenues, such as posing as prominent UAE and American government figures, to get clients to pay for authentication fees.
Following a tip from a whistleblower, Declan Walsh assembled the tale over the course of three months. Nothing is something I wish to take away from him. It was an amazing tale. It resulted in the arrest of Shoaib Shaikh and thrilled all of the FBI and Interpol.
Simply put, I had discovered the racket almost a year prior. And I had completed it on my own, without assistance, in less than two weeks.
My article, which appeared in Gulf News on June 4, 2014, describes how hundreds of CEOs and vice presidents in the UAE rose through the ranks of the corporate ladder using degrees from fictitious universities. Axact managed all of these online degree mills.
Regretfully, I was not permitted to include Axact’s name in our tale by my editor. I contended, “What good is it to expose a scam if we don’t identify the perpetrators for the readers?” It was an attempt in vain.
He hissed at me from behind his thick-rimmed glasses, saying, “No name means no names.” I’ll end the story if you insist. On this, I want no discussion.
Out of disgust, I stormed out of his room. I immediately sent letters to key Indian journalists referencing Axact’s name and the fraudulent universities I had discovered as soon as our piece went live. My inquiry revealed that Axact was supported by the infamous D Syndicate, which is headed by Dawood Ibrahim, an international terrorist and the most wanted mobster in India. I was hoping this would set off alarm bells.
This is an exact copy of the email I wrote on June 6, 2014, over eleven months before Walsh’s New York Times report:
Selling degrees is a new revenue stream for the D corporation, and believe me when I say that it is far more profitable than both smuggling and human trafficking together.
Shockingly, several Indians are unwittingly filling up their coffers.
Visit any of the following links:
ww.edgebrookuniversity.com
http://www.experiencebasedgraduates.com/
www.affordabledegrees.com
www.midtownuniversity.com
They are all non-existent colleges offering college degrees based on life experiences. Prices range from $500 to $4000. Open any of them and go to the chat option and ask for a college degree.
We did a story today.
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/online-fake-degrees-xpress-investigation-part-2-1.1342936
It has now emerged that all of these bogus universities—there are hundreds of them worldwide—are backed by the Pakistan-based company AXACT.
They have established contact centers where Pakistani students who were educated in the UK and the US pose as US academics and speak with strong accents.
Their primary business is this. An insider claims that the yearly turnover is $500 million. The unfortunate thing is that every day, 2,000–4,000 gullible Indian students and job seekers sign up for these fake courses. (India is their largest Asian market), inadvertently providing financing for the D empire.
I assumed that the reporters would seize onto the story right away, but they passed on the lead. I was tempted to send my email with the link to the New York Times piece again, just to make them seem bad. That is not what I did. It would have been like the pot calling the kettle black, not because I am a gentleman.
