UK IMMIGRATION WATCHDOG LINKED TO WORLDWIDE SCAMS
RAIDS IN CAIRO LEAD TO BOSSES IN THAI BEACH RESORTS
– BOGUS UNIVERSITIES, IMMIGRATION LOOPHOLES, CHEATED STUDENTS
A family company employed by the Home Office to check out colleges in Britain for immigration scammers is being blamed for a worldwide flood of bogus university degrees carrying a British government stamp of approval.
Either though ‘lack of oversight’ or ‘through a concerted effort’ the Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC) has approved over 400 colleges and universities’ worldwide charging colleges from US$3000 – US$15,000 with repeat fees every four years.
Many are worldwide degree mills based out of rented offices which have been happy to pay top dollar for the ‘Home Office and U.K.V.I approved ASIC logo. on their websites and degree certificates. Most sales have been in Islamic countries – 60 In Iraq alone and others in Iran and Jordan.
So plentiful are the fake degrees that even police officers in Cairo – a learning hub – are holding degree certificates with the company’s logo. And an independent investigation by staff involved in degree verification shows how that either a ‘lack of oversight’ or a ‘concerted effort’ could have opened doors have opened to visa scammers – while all the while Britain has been focused on asylum seekers crossing the channel.
Nearly 700,000 students are in Britain on education visas.
And in Cairo, Egypt, further fears have been expressed that the situation could create an immigration loophole for terrorists through cheated students in a region where anti-western sentiment has increased due to the situation in Gaza and Yemen.
Fifteen years ago, the Chairman of ASIC, Maurcie Dimmock, now 73, , based out of a semi-detached house in Stockton-on-Tees was asked to explain to a Parliamentary Home Office Committee why his company had approved colleges in the UK where students could simply buy their certificates without attending any lessons, or which had sponsored thousands of students they never had the capacity to handle. But no action was taken against ASIC.
The Committee asked the Home Office and Border Agency to investigate but no results of that investigation were ever published. And repeated requests for information to the Home Office have yet to be answered.
Whatever happened, it has had no effect. ASIC changed its logo to announce it now intended to accredit international universities and went global. And Mr.Dimmock did likewise ending up in the Thai beach resort of Pattaya where last November he took a Thai wife.
Independent analysts accuse ASIC of ‘giving the green light to bogus education providers and providers associated with criminal activity’. The investigation backs independent enquiries carried out here since November.
ASIC has not only signed off Premier accreditations for universities abroad that could never find accreditation in their own countries, but many which exist only in name issuing the unrecognised degrees at a price.
The International American Theism University (AITU) in Sarasota, Florida, is an Islamic online University just inside the US bible belt. But the students attended lectures beamed from Cairo.
The European International University (EIU), in Paris, is a shophouse next to a beauty parlour but is operated from Bangkok by Malaysian by Taiwanese and Malaysian nationals, also beaming lectures in Arabic from the Middle East.
And the International Business School of Scandinavia (IBSS) is also served by lecturer beamed from Cairo while its boss Martin Nielsen, a Dane, controlled it from the Thai resort island of Phuket. IBSS has now been superceded by another collage.
The American Management University, based in California, simply publishes a price list for the degrees from the European International University, and has just announced its holding its graduation proceedings in the Thai capital!
The list goes on ……………..
Malaysian Edward Roy Krishnan, director general of the EIU in Paris, (which actually uses an Ascension Islands web address, ac, which many countries use to denote ‘academia) calls himself an ASIC inspector. He also runs the Bangkok School of Management and together with the Taiwanese Chairman of EIU, Dr. Chang Lao-Yang, has registered educational enties at Companies House in the UK. They are Pedagog AC, the Oxford Metropolitan University, and the School of Arts, Commerce and Science – all registered to an address in Francis Street, Leicester and all with Ascension Islands websites.
Krishnan attended Dimmock’s wedding in November and can also be seen attending ASIC accreditation celebrations with Dimmock.
But Krishnan himself claims bogus decrees including a Ph.D. from the ASIC accredited, but now defunct, bogus European Global School in Paris. (EGS) is owned by an Egyptian, and listed Dr. ‘Edward Roy’ under Krishnan’s photograph as one of the Heads of Administration. Krishnan and Dr. Chang Lao-Yang also run the Bangkok School of Management as one of his affiliated learning centres.
In December, the Egyptian authorities blacklisted 411 learning centres in Cairo warning students they were being offered bogus degrees.
The move followed an earlier raid on one – the Egyptian Cultural Centre (EEC) – where ASIC logos could be seen on completed and incomplete degree certificates from unrecognised universities An Egyptian government spokesman said among the items found were “266 MBA certificates, including 29 data-free certificates attributed to foreign entities, – a quantity of fake score data for victims during the study periods at the centre – a set of documents for those wishing to study – 129 cash receipt receipts from his customers with a total of 980,000 Egyptian pounds (about £25,000)”
The fake degrees identified were from the ASIC and QISAN accredited (IBSS) International Business of School of Scandinavia – run by Dane Martin Nielsen and Egyptian Ayman Elmalt under the umbrella of a company called ‘My Global World of Education’. (QISAN – Quality International Study Abroad Network is also registered to Maurice Dimmock.)
Other colleges of MGW include the International Business Academy of Switzerland, and the Swiss School of Business and Technology (SSBT) and Swiss School of Business and Hospitality (SSBH). Like Krishnan, Nielsen also operates his business from Thailand and has a school there – the Business, Hospitality and Language School of Phuket. He also runs the unaccredited Western States University of Hawaii, though it has no campus there.
Victim Ahmed Adel, assistant lecturer at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) who paid for US$2000 for a business degree course from the Swiss School of Business and Technology (SSBT) said:
“I paid them and had to attend lecturers in rented rooms in Cairo. All of the lecturers were Egyptian, but they did not give real names and certainly did not work as faculty members at genuine universities. They may have been students who had just graduated.“
“When I learned that these were fake universities and saw the quality of the staff, I decided not to continue this lie because I would be getting a worthless degree.
“But in my time SSBT changed to be the Swiss School of Business and Hospitality and finally to La Xenia University – all registered at the same address in Switzerland. I lost a lot of money and time.”
The action by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Administrative Control Authority continues to this day. Last week officials were dealing with the CEO Business School..
Mohamed Nabil Elmasry, MA, Political Science, Cairo University, was a trainer for the International Organisation for Managerial Science, an Egyptian Cultural Centre (EEC) sister company. But he quit after making enquiries about ASIC and the ‘western’ universities and realising the degrees were bogus. He attended meeetings with with several schools promoting MGM universities including the CEO Business School and Bloom Business Schools in Cairo.
He was training would-be lecturers in marketing, human resources, and management, but many of his pupils, he said, were not ready for post-graduate studies and he saw the same problems in the partner schools.
“It’s out of control. All you need to do is set up a limited company, give yourself a few initials after your name, call yourself the University of Hope, or whatever, get your ASIC accreditation, and sit back and collect the money.
“The students are being cheated.
“There is also a potential security threat. Anti-western feeling is on the rise now due to the war in Gaza and bombings in the Yemen. Some schools are run by Islamists with former connections to the proscribed Muslim Brotherhood. If you speak out against they people, like I do, you are labelled an infidel or non believer. Pathways to Britain and Europe are already open. ASIC tells customers their students can attend ASIC accredited institutions in the UK.”
Pathway courses and conferences in Britain and Europe could be dangerous in the current climate, said Sara ‘Samy’ Abdel Rasool, a teacher, broadcaster, and ‘influencer’ in Cairo who has gone public on social media TV show about Islamic threats. Students invited to seminars abroad could abuse their invitations or allow other people to.
Individuals driven by pre-existing hatred towards Western countries are drawn to “seminars” (in Europe) hosted by fake colleges, seeking tools and justification for their extremist agendas.
“These fraudulent institutions offer worthless credentials, leaving their students with a crushing sense of betrayal and a shattered dream. This sense of disillusionment and despair can be a breeding ground for extremism.
“Many fake schools with fake accreditations organize seminars all over Europe and US and serious extremism behaviours will emerge from these seminars or ceremonies. Many of the founding members of these mills are Islamist.”
Sara Abdel Rasool
Terrorist threat or not * ASIC accreditations have allowed unmonitored shortcuts to British universites.
One such British institution is the London based ASIC accredited International Foundation Group which offers pathway courses, in place of A levels, through which to enter British Universities of the Russell Group, which includes Oxford and Cambridge. IFG is not registered at Companies House.
Key officials of IFG hold posts in the St. Clements University network, the London Graduate School and the Commonwealth University – all considered degree mills.
The Commonwealth University, which gives a London address is registered in Panama. The London Graduate School which also gives a Tottenham, London address had a former ‘campus’ in a semi-detached house in Tottenham owned by a former Nigerian senator, whom, it was claimed in a criminal court action in Abuja, had acquired it through the sales of worthless Commonwealth University degrees.
And the St. Clements University group is registered in the Turks and Caicos. According to Prospects HEDD:
“We estimate that St Clements is behind at least 30% of the bogus providers in the HEDD database (a conservative estimate) and represents a significant network of individuals.”
“This network is self-propagating and once an individual studies at a SCU affiliated provider, they are exponentially more likely to set up a fraudulent provider themselves. This is due to the fact that global bogus universities can act with relative impunity and there is little doubt that this is particularly appealing to graduates.”
education analyst
The St Clements Group offers pathways to the UK from its institute in Phnom Penh, Cambodia – to Albion College in London. This college has not existed for years in London. First it changed its name to Abbey College then finally the London Graduate School and was run Michael Addison, now the Academic Director of the IFG.
“Where IFG ostensibly offers pathway qualifications to UK qualifications, key personnel are associated with London Graduate School/Commonwealth University which offers meaningless qualifications in exchange for paying an exorbitant seminar fee. (Up to US$9000 for attending a leadership conference and getting an Honorary Doctorate in Dubai)….
eductaion analyst
“There is no element of study in exchange for these honorary degrees. They can circumvent UK laws by basing the Commonwealth University in Panama, despite the fact their offices and staff are based in London.”
Maurice Dimmock had received LinkedIn endorsements from ‘known figures connected to criminal activity in the education business’.
“Through a lack of oversight or through a concerted effort, bogus providers and providers associated with criminal activity have been given the green light by ASIC.,
“ASIC has demonstrated negligence with regard to the providers it accredits.
“Due to ASIC’s relationship with the Home Office, any provider accredited by ASIC has been advertising this endorsement as though they have been directly accredited by the UK government.”
“That ASIC already accredits known bogus providers while advertising their relationship to the Home Office should be grounds for immediate action against ASIC.
“The multitude of ASIC-accredited providers without Companies House records, physical locations or even functioning websites should also be investigated as part of this, particularly as it is these providers who may be sponsoring students for visas without any oversight or paper trail.”
Education analyst
Meanwhile Edward Roy Krishnan’s European International University has been promoting a three-day European International University workshop in London at £4000 per person.
He promised delegates they will be infused, inspired, and ignited by the most articulate and powerful speaker in the world, also one of the world’s ‘top leaders and philanthropists.
The speaker was none other than the Chairman of the Parliamentary Home of Committe of investigation into Bogus Colleges in the U.K. The former Rt.Hon Keith Vaz M.P. who did not even require Maurice Dimmock to attend and explain ASIC’s behaviour. Keith Vaz
The philanthropist was billed as the disgraced former Labour M.P. Keith Vaz (Leicester East), perhaps better known after being exposed posing as a washing machine salesman while offering to purchase Class A drugs for two male prostitutes in his apartment, and who, after a bullying enquiry, was told by an Independent Parliamentary Committee that he should never be given a parliamentary pass again.
Nobody is going to be infused or inspired. The event due to be held this week was cancelled last week. Those who paid their £4000 are being invited to suggest a new date.
ASIC were approached several times for comment. No reply was given to questions. At the time of publication the Home Office still had not replied to written questions. The Parliamentary enquiry into bogus colleges can be found here.
The Committees conclusions are here. Keith Vaz stated: ” We note concerns amongst the education sector about the credentials of one of the accrediting bodies, the Accreditation Service for International Colleges. We understand the UK Border Agency is currently conducting a review of accrediting organisations, but the allegations are very worrying, and we suggest that they look closely at these allegations and request they make the results of the review available to us as a matter of urgency.“
* The Parliamentary Home Office Committee found no substantial evidence to corroborate the alleged link between bogus colleges and terrorist activity. There is no suggestion intended that ASIC has not accredited bona fide universities and schools in the UK abroad.
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