Posted on 12/07/2004 12:47:30 PM PST by Justaham
By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press Writer
HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Pennsylvania attorney general's office Monday sued an online university for allegedly selling bogus academic degrees — including an MBA awarded to a cat.
Trinity Southern University in Texas, a cellular company and the two brothers who ran them are accused of misappropriating Internet addresses of the state Senate and more than 60 Pennsylvania businesses to sell fake degrees and prescription drugs by spam e-mail, according to the lawsuit.
Investigators paid $299 for a bachelor's degree for Colby Nolan — a deputy attorney general's 6-year-old black cat — claiming he had experience including baby-sitting and retail management.
The school, which offers no classes, allegedly determined Colby Nolan's resume entitled him to a master of business administration degree; a transcript listed the cat's course work and 3.5 grade-point average.
The state is seeking a permanent injunction, civil penalties, costs and restitution for violating consumer law and restrictions on unsolicited e-mail ads.
Prosecutors said more than 18,000 illegal e-mails were sent out this year with links to Trinity Southern's Web address, including 300 that appeared to originate from the Internet servers of Pennsylvania companies and institutions.
Among the alleged victims are Penn State University and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as numerous Internet service providers, businesses and technology companies.
The defendants are the school; Innovative Cellular and Wireless Inc. of Corpus Christi, Texas; Alton Scott Poe of St. Cloud, Fla., vice chancellor and dean of admission for Trinity; and Craig Barton Poe of Frisco, Texas, president of Innovative Cellular.
A phone message left at Trinity Southern was not returned Monday. None of the other three defendants appears to have a listed or published phone number.
I guarantee the Cat had PURRRFECT ATTENDANCE!
Kind of gives new perspective to the blood sweat and tears my Master's cost me. Silly me. I could have just BOUGHT it.
*sigh*
a very unwelcome comment!
I just knew someone would pounce on that LOL
A cat with an MBA can run that college better.
Ooh. Someone's feeling frisky...
Also posted here
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1296143/posts
Doing a search on "cat" turned up nothing. Hmmmm.....
What a revolting development this is!
Should have given their degree-granting a cat-scan.
Do they offer Masters in litterrature?
Meow! Meow! Meow!
What's the offense? Is it the selling that constitutes the crime? Or does the crime lie in the fact that only bogus degrees were sold?
Of course it's a fraud, you knew that when you sent in the check with "MBA Degree" written in the memo field! What you're buying is a frameable certificate. Anyone who looks at that and decides to let you work in their clinic or head up their accounting division is a fool and deserves whatever bad things follow.
It's a scam but such an obvious one. How does this differ from "buying a star" from international star registry? In both cases you spend an exorbitant sum of money to procure a nice parchment document to accompany your fantasy.
Proof that cats are smarter than dogs.
"Cat"
Ping!
I know a dog who teaches political science at the local university.
I will bet my cats are smarter than alot of those graduates nowadays.
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