US lawyers seek govt action against Axact

LONDON: The Axact scandal victims have sought intervention of the US authorities in the matter. In 2012, a US court made a decision in favour of 30,000 victims. These people have sought the money which they had paid for degrees back.
The money could not be returned since the fraudulent company was outside the US. The US lawyers say that the US has enough grounds to initiate an action in the case. They said that the frauds had used the US mail, internet, phone lines and even the names and signatures of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
Two of the lawyers have demanded of the US government and security agencies to take a stand on the Axact issue. They fear that Axact has defrauded 30,000 US citizens. They say a $22 million decision was issued against Axact by a US district court in 2012 and a representative of Axact appeared in hearing through video link but later he ran away.
These lawyers have demanded of the US government to intervene in the case since the US land and signatures of John Kerry were used in the scam. The UK Home Office has also announced that it will support “any criminal investigation into the production of false degree certification” if a request is made by the Government of Pakistan which has initiated an inquiry into the Axact fake degrees scam.
Axact, the so-called world’s largest IT company, has been exposed by the New York Times as a fake degrees mill which is believed to have issued tens of thousands of bogus degrees and diplomas to anyone who paid for it around the world. Suspicions have grown that several people in the UK could have also been given the same fake qualifications, playing with the lives of millions.
Speaking to The News, a UK Home Office spokesman said that the UK authorities will help Pakistan “with the assistance of the relevant authorities” into the false degrees scandal that has rocked the world.
The spokesman told ‘The News’ that the Pakistani government had not yet made any request for assistance but will look into the case if a request was made.The spokesman explained in the interview that the government started a massive crackdown against bogus education institutions back in 2010 to ensure that abuse of the system was stopped.
“The student immigration system in 2010 was open to widespread abuse. In its place, the government is building an immigration system that works in the national interest by attracting the brightest and the best to study and work in top universities and good jobs.”
The Home Office spokesman expressed determination that the conmen and fraudsters doing business in the name of education — like Axact does — will not be tolerated. He added: “The government will not allow bogus colleges to cheat the rules and we have closed down more than 850 of these organisations since 2010. We will continue curbing abuse, being more robust with institutions that have high rates of students overstaying and looking to toughen English language requirements for students.”