Source: The Daily Telegraph
AN American man who attended Harvard University for two years before getting kicked out has pleaded not guilty to charges he fabricated a perfect record of academic achievement to get into the Ivy League school.
Adam Wheeler was tossed from Harvard when he tried to get the school’s endorsement for Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships last September, and a professor reviewing his applications found evidence he had plagiarised the work of another professor, prosecutors say.
Mr Wheeler’s parents gave him up to a Yale official who called to ask about their son’s transfer application.
At his arraignment today, Mr Wheeler was ordered held on $US5000 ($5690) bail on 20 counts of larceny, identity fraud and other charges. If he makes bail, he must stay away from Harvard and the other academic institutions involved in the alleged scheme, surrender his passport and remain in Massachusetts, a Middlesex Superior Court judge said.
The 23-year-old Mr Wheeler claimed he got a perfect score on the SAT, straight A’s at prestigious prep school Phillips Academy Andover and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on his application to Harvard in 2007, prosecutors said.
In reality, he had never attended either school, Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said. Prosecutor John Verner said in court today that Mr Wheeler essentially stole $US45,000 ($51,276) in financial aid, scholarship money and academic awards from Harvard.
Mr Wheeler, an English major who would have graduated from Harvard this spring, tried to transfer to Yale and Brown after he got caught at Harvard, Mr Leone said, again by falsifying his achievements and recommendations.
In his applications, Mr Wheeler said he was employed by McLean Hospital, a psychiatric facility affiliated with Harvard, even though he was not, Mr Leone said.
His transfer application included faked recommendations from an employee at the hospital and from his former Harvard dean, Mr Leone said.
Yale was tipped off by Mr Wheeler’s parents, Mr Verner said.
A Yale official called the Wheeler home to ask about his application, and one of his parents told the official that the application wasn’t truthful and their son had been thrown out of Harvard. Mr Wheeler’s parents refused to comment outside of court.
His lawyer, Steven Sussman, said his client “will have his day in court and that day is not today”.
Harvard said yesterday it could not discuss individual cases because of federal privacy laws and referred all questions to the district attorney’s office.
Mr Wheeler was a student at Bowdoin College in Maine from 2005-07, but was suspended for academic dishonesty, authorities said.