10 Indicted in Alleged Transcript Scam
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The Manhattan district attorney is accusing two former administrators at Touro College of writing fake college and graduate school transcripts in a “cash-for-grades” scheme that could call hundreds of records into question.
The indictment lists only seven incidents of fraud that occurred during the first three months of this year, but a spokeswoman for District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Jennifer Kushner, said it is possible there are many more. The named cases include allegedly false transcripts issued to three New York City public school teachers, three former Touro College students, and one person who allegedly never attended the college. All seven were indicted yesterday along with the two administrators and one alleged accomplice not affiliated with the college.
The city schoolteachers, from three schools in Queens and Brooklyn, allegedly paid at least $3,000 each for certificates in special education despite never havingattendedclasses. Suchcertificates would likely entitle the accusedteacherstoraisesofabout $5,000 a year, a Department of Education spokeswoman, Marge Feinberg, said.
Ms. Feinberg said the department is seeking the teachers’ termination and trying to recoup any unwarranted salary bonuses. Two men were indicted as being behind the alleged scheme: the director of admissions at a Touro campus in Manhattan, Andrique Baron, and the school’s Brooklyn-based computer center director, Michael Cherner. Together, they used a computer system to gain access to student records at least 50 times, Ms. Kushner charged. “It could be hundreds of altered records that were involved,” she said.
Both have been temporarily suspended from Touro College, Ms. Kushner said, and Mr. Cherner yesterday pleaded not guilty in state Supreme Court to charges that included receiving a bribe and computer trespass.
“These are only accusations. They’re not evidence of anything,” Mr. Cherner’s lawyer, Michael Rosen, said yesterday.
Lasheen Tingling also pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records; she allegedly received a master of science degree based on a doctored transcript. A spokesman for the state education department, Tom Dunn, said the department is asking Touro College to strengthen its “internal controls” against future frauds.
In a statement, the college said the “betrayal of trust” was uncovered only because of “certain controls in place.” An employee noticed that a student who had been rejected once before had been admitted with a different transcript, Ms. Kushner said.

