Belford varsity was run from Axact’s office, says ex-employee

KARACHI: While the alleged fraud committed by various online universities associated with Axact is currently being proven officially, one case that has been proved in a US court of law has now been directly linked to Axact – thanks to the revelation of a former employee of the ‘IT company’ on Geo’s show “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Ke Saath” on Monday.
Belford High School and Belford University were subject to a class-action lawsuit in the US state of Michigan in 2009 in which some 30,000 complainants were awarded a judgment in their favour totalling $22.7 million in 2012.
Though the lawyers believed that Belford was run by Axact, the direct ownership was never established.According to journalist Aftab Borka, who spoke to Shahzeb Khanzada on the matter and who is following the case based in Detroit Michigan, the prosecution was not concerned, per se, about whether or not Axact was involved; they wanted to prove the degrees being sold online were fake and they got a judgment in their favour.
Also a Pakistani named Saleem Qureshi took the blame for the sites in a mysterious Skype confession to the US court, and “admitted” he was running them from his apartment in Karachi. Axact also denied any sort of association with Belford.
However, the money was never paid, Saleem has not resurfaced and so the matter remains without closure.On Monday, however, former Axact employee Taha Jatoi, in an interview with Geo’s Shahzeb Khanzada, revealed that Belford was very much linked with Axact. Jatoi had achieved a high level position in the company in a short time thanks to his “sales” to customers in Axact’s “Online Education Department” – which was responsible for marketing and enrolling customers in various online universities (He told Khanzada that he was responsible for the portfolios of two online universities based out of the US - MUST University and Rize University.)
During the course of interview, Khanzada asked Jatoi if, during his time at Axact, he had come across a university/school called Belford – and the answer was “Yes, of course.”“This university (Belford) was first just a high school. Lots of courses were added later … Quite a few agents were assigned this school and it was a good and solid amount of revenue. The entire university was operated from within Axact. Though it was online and though it was registered and runs on a PO Box, the way this university runs, the way it functions, the education that is being given, the way things (material) were being shipped out… all these processes, A to Z, were controlled from within Axact’s office.”
Jatoi also told Khanzada that another Axact department, the “Research Department” wrote papers and theses for legitimate college students too. This department employed young talented graduates in Pakistan who would do this work for foreign students.
He also spoke about the targets given to employees in terms of education sales. He said these “degrees” were not worth much more than wall decorations, and that because of this Axact also offered “attestation” services from “high authorities” so that they could be used without giving rise to suspicion.
He also revealed that the “exams” that were conducted by agents sitting in the offices in Axact were basically just eyewash and that even if you failed the three attempts, you would still be mailed the diploma/degree.
In terms of the institution already found guilty, Belford - according to The New York Times’ investigative report, “Today, Belford is still open for business, using a slightly different website address.”
It also said that, “In his testimony, Mr. Qureshi denied any links to Axact, even though mailboxes operated by the Belford schools listed the company’s (Axact’s) headquarters as their forwarding address.”
The links between Axact and Belford were first established by US lawyers when the registered addresses of Belford came on the name of a man named Syed Asim Moraj Hashmi, who had an address registered in Houston Texas.
Hashmi’s other address found was of one in Karachi’s Anum Estate – an address that matched one of Axact’s addresses.Borka said this matter still awaits closure, and though no comment has come forward from relevant US authorities in this matter, it is expected that the federal authorities will take up this matter as the next step.He said this matter might also figure as part of a potential US-Pakistan joint investigation into the matter should it reach that stage.