Pakistan jails ‘fake degree tycoon’

Islamabad : Pakistan yesterday sentenced a national who built a multi-million-dollar empire by selling fake degrees worldwide. Shoaib Shaikh, the owner and chief executive officer of Pakistan-based IT firm Axact, was arrested by the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) yesterday after he was summoned by a local court for a hearing, Gulf News reported. 

The arrest came 82 days after a district and session court in Islamabad convicted Shaikh and 22 of his close aides in the $140 million (Dh514 million) fake degree scandal and sentenced them 20 years each. The convicts have also been fined Rs1 million each. In May 2015, New York Times carried an extensive report naming Axact and detailing how it reaped millions of dollars by selling academic certificates from 350 colleges that existed only in the virtual world. Following the expose, Axact’s offices were raided and Shaikh was arrested only to be released on bail.

“At Axact’s 24/7 Karachi headquarters, we handled roughly 5,000 calls daily. Of them 60 per cent came from the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” Axact staffer turned whistle blower Sayyad Yasir Jamshaid was quoted by Gulf News. “Most UAE clients preferred multiple degrees and would happily fork out between Dh50,000 and Dh100,000 for each certificate. “Rochville, Brooklyn Park, Gibson, Grant Town, Ashley, Nixon, Campbell, Belford, Paramount California were among the most popular Axact-owned bogus universities here,” he said.

Between 2009 and 2015, Pakistani software firm Axact, which also owns the media company BOL Network, peddled fake degrees to over 200,000 people in 197 countries. Shoaib Shaikh, the owner and chief executive officer of Axact, was arrested by the country’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Wednesday after he was summoned by a local court for a hearing in Karachi. The company’s favourite hunting ground was the Middle East where it reportedly sold 60,000 bogus academic certificates, according to Sayyad.