> <i>He is charged with four counts of larceny over $250, eight counts of identity fraud, seven counts of falsifying an endorsement or approval and pretending to hold a degree.</i><p>Whenever I see these articles, I always picture some huffy duff in a suit turning red because he was fooled, so in retaliation he throws numerous baseless charges at the fraudster in addition to the ones that are based on something in some sort of legal temper tantrum. Shouldn't he just have a number of counts of fraud rather than, "as many charges as we can pile on and make stick?"
I wonder if Harvard could contact whoever was the first person on the waitlist not to get in that year and inform that person that he/she has grounds to sue the guy for millions of dollars. It seems like a suit that the person could win, and it would be really interesting what a jury determined was the "value" of having a Harvard degree compared to having a degree from some other school.
So this guy was an undocumented Harvard student without papers. Sure he received funds from Harvard and may have falsified a few documents/ID cards, but what's the big deal? He came there to work.<p>(Seriously -- the analogy to illegal immigrants is actually very strong. Harvard students are outraged about this because they 'obeyed the rules' and 'worked hard' to get in, yet their financial aid money is going to someone who didn't. This is very similar to the way many citizens and legal immigrants feel about the current government failure at the southern border.)
Similar past cases:<p>- Azia Kim from Stanford: <a href="http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=5120" rel="nofollow">http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_story.php?id=5120</a><p>- Michael Godelia from Harvard: <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/11/murky-past-trails-man-to-harvard/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2007/4/11/murky-past-trail...</a>
I'm not a troll.<p>I don't think the law should have anything to do with this. He didn't do anything hard. He was only able to get away with what he did because Harvard was to lazy to verify his documents. Harvard charges $33k/semester, at that price they can afford to take the time to verify _every_ applicant's information.