As part of a plea agreement with U.S. authorities, 19-year-old Indian student Aryan Anand has agreed to plead guilty to charges of falsifying documents for admission to a U.S. university, and he will return to India.
Aryan Anand was charged with providing fraudulent documents for admission to Lehigh University, a private research university in Pennsylvania, during the academic year 2023-2024.
According to 'The Brown and White,' Lehigh University's student newspaper, a police investigation found out that Anand forged admission and financial documents, including his father's death, in an attempt to gain admission and get a scholarship.
Magisterial District Judge Jordan Knisley set the bail for Anand at USD 25,000 on June 12. He was charged with one count of forgery.
As part of a plea agreement, Anand received a sentence of one to three months in Northampton County Prison, which essentially translated to time served, according to his defense attorney, Molly Heidorn.
The plea bargain also calls for Anand to be deported back to India. Lehigh University decided not to ask for restitution of about USD 85 000. After his sentencing he was turned over to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to a news release from District Attorney Stephen Baratta of Northampton County, throughout the course of the scam, Anand had created a phony email account and acted as if he were a principal of the school. It has also been reported that Anand's father is alive and resides in India.
Anand's lies came to light after he wrote a post on Reddit titled 'I have built my life and career on lies' in which he narrated his fraudulent activities. An anonymous post initiated the probe when a Reddit monitor notified the Lehigh's Admission Department on April 26.
The criminal complaint said the Reddit thread was written by 'u/transportationOK4728', who only followed one university group which was Lehigh University. Further investigation by police from Lehigh identified Anand as the author of the post. The post, since deleted, included detailed accounts of his scheme.
Anand confessed to having created an email account and sending a forged death certificate of his father in order to avail extra financial aid. He falsified tax documents, tampered with the transcripts from school and made a "Senior School Certificate Examination" to show he was a successful student in his Statement of Purpose so that he could get admission and aid at a U.S. university.
A criminal complaint filed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on April 30 charged him with forgery, tampering with records or identification, theft by deception and theft of services. Metadata showed that he edited the death certificate and tax documents using the "iLovePDF" website, and edited the academic documents using Adobe Photoshop.
He was charged with second-degree felony forgery and tampering with records or identification and two third-degree felonies both for theft by deception and theft of services.
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