SPOKANE — A newspaper has published the names of thousands of people who bought phony degrees from a Spokane-based diploma mill that was busted by the federal government.
The Spokesman-Review obtained the 9,612 names after the U.S. Department of Justice refused to release them. The newspaper declined to reveal how it got the list.
Jim McDevitt, the U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington who had refused to release the buyers’ list, stood by his decision.
“We did not release the list because it was our legal obligation not to release it,” McDevitt said.
“There’s a leak in every system,” McDevitt said when asked if he was surprised that the list was on the newspaper’s Web site.
The newspaper reported that hundreds of people working in the military, government and education are among those who spent a total of $7.3 million buying phony and counterfeit high school and college degrees from the diploma mill.
Using e-mail addresses, the newspaper found 135 people with ties to the military, 39 with links to educational institutions and 17 employed by government agencies.
But the newspaper said those numbers could be higher if people used their personal e-mail accounts to buy degrees.
Prosecutors had argued in court that people who used fake degrees to obtain raises and job promotions could be putting the public at risk. Some people obtained medical degrees.
Eight people who set up and operated the diploma mill, including ringleader Dixie Ellen Randock, were convicted of federal crimes. Randock, a 58-year-old high school dropout, was sentenced to three years in prison.
Government prosecutors will recommend that same sentence for her husband, Steve Randock, who will be sentenced Tuesday. The Randocks sold thousands of counterfeit degrees and transcripts from legitimate colleges, and phony degrees and transcripts from nonexistent online universities and schools.
Only one buyer, former Deputy U.S. Marshal David F. Brodhagen of Spokane, who was forced into early retirement, has been charged in the case.
But the newspaper reported that some individuals who bought degrees had already lost their jobs.
The newspaper said one New Jersey man spent $24,088 on 16 different degrees and certificates, including a doctor of theology.
Of the 9,612 purchasers, 826 bought at least one Ph.D. and 41 bought two doctorates.
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Names at www.spokesmanreview.com
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