Updates

Student charged with admissions fraud is sentenced

The student who forged a Columbia transcript and recommendation letter in order to transfer to Yale College (see "Former student charged with faking transcript," May/June 2008) was given a three-year suspended sentence and five years' probation on September 5. Akash Maharaj, 27, had pleaded guilty on May 30 to larceny charges stemming from the $31,750 in financial aid he accepted from Yale, although he did not admit wrongdoing.

Korean university rejects Yale settlement offer

In September, officials at Dongguk University told the Korea Times that Yale had offered to apologize publicly in a news conference and in Korean newspaper ads in order to settle a $50 million lawsuit Dongguk filed against Yale in March. (See "Korean university sues Yale for $50 million," May/June 2008.) The suit claims that Yale damaged the Korean university's reputation when it mistakenly verified the falsified Yale credentials of a professor Dongguk had hired. Yale officials would not comment on the reported settlement offer.

Man sentenced in green card scam

The man who conned immigrants out of $500,000 while pretending to run an immigration law clinic at Yale (see "Green card scam run from Law School office," July/August 2007) was sentenced to 20 years in prison on August 29. Ralph Cucciniello used his position as a volunteer research assistant to Law School professor Steven Duke '61LLM to convince immigrants he was a lawyer and could arrange green cards for them.