Yeah, Well I Heard Columbia Was A Diploma Mill, Too . . . Or Was That “Columbia College”?

Then there are those with their hoity-toity Ivy League “educations” who sneer at “fake degrees” coming from “diploma mills”. Elitists:

Fourteen employees of the Fire Department of New York bought phony diplomas over the Internet and submitted them to the city in an attempt to meet educational requirements for being promoted or hired, according to a report released yesterday by the Department of Investigation.

Of the 14 employees, 3 were promoted in 2001 and 2002 based on the phony degrees; they did not have the required college credits.

The other 11 turned in phony diplomas that were subsequently rejected; 10 were promoted or hired anyway because they eventually obtained enough legitimate credits, but one was improperly promoted without proper credits.

Asked whether any employees would be punished or promotions rescinded, a Fire Department spokesman, Francis X. Gribbon, said officials had awaited the completion of the investigation “before proceeding with any disciplinary actions that may be warranted.”

He added, “That review is now under way.”

The report says several of the 14 employees had suspicions about the degrees and expressed their misgivings to peers and supervisors.

The phony diplomas were purchased from St. Regis University, described by federal prosecutors as a diploma mill that churned out thousands of fake degrees, at hundreds of dollars apiece, from a base near Spokane, Wash., using various Web sites.

In October 2005, a federal grand jury in Spokane indicted eight people at St. Regis on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Three have pleaded guilty. The other five cases are pending, including those of Dixie E. Randock and Steven K. Randock Sr., who were described as the main owners of St. Regis and were also charged with money laundering.

St. Regis had called itself an “online distance learning institution,” based in Liberia and accredited by the Education Ministry there.