Education A National Roundup

Wash. State Man Pleads Guilty for Role in Diploma-Mill Scam

By Andrew Trotter — March 21, 2006 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

A Spokane, Wash., man pleaded guilty last week to being part of a conspiracy that used the Internet to sell thousands of bogus degrees from the phony St. Regis University and other so-called diploma mills.

Blake A. Carlson, the owner of a rubber-stamp company, admitted in an agreement with federal prosecutors that he made seals and signature stamps used to create false degrees. He also evaluated customers’ applications for advanced degrees, using the alias Professor Blackwell, even though he had not graduated from college.

Court papers allege that from 1999 to 2005, the scheme sold $4.7 million in fraudulent academic products to customers worldwide. Fake degrees were issued in subjects including nursing, chemistry, and radiological sciences.

Among purchasers of education degrees from the phony university, which purported to be based in and accredited by Liberia, were a handful of educators from five Georgia districts. They were fired after a scandal in 2004. (“Educators’ Degrees Earned on Internet Raise Fraud Issues,” May 5, 2004.)

Under the March 7 plea agreement, Mr. Carlson could be sentenced to five years in prison and fined $250,000 for the felony.

Seven others have been indicted in the case, including the scheme’s alleged leaders, Dixie E. Randock and her husband, Steven K. Randock Sr., of Colbert, Wash. Their trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 16 in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

A version of this article appeared in the March 22, 2006 edition of Education Week

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: January 17, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education In Their Own Words The Stories That Stuck With Us, 2023 Edition
Our newsroom selected five stories as among the highlights of our work. Here's why.
4 min read
102523 IMSE Reading BS
Adria Malcolm for Education Week
Education Opinion The 10 Most-Read Opinions of 2023
Here are Education Week’s most-read Opinion blog posts and essays of 2023.
2 min read
Collage of lead images for various opinion stories.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty
Education Letter to the Editor EdWeek's Most-Read Letters of 2023
Read the most-read Letters to the Editor of the past year.
1 min read
Illustration of a line of diverse hands holding up speech bubbles in front of a subtle textured newspaper background
iStock/Getty