# Forgery & Fakery **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001 "2010-05-19T14:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/1 "2010-05-19T14:12:35Z")
Please excuse my lack of a link, I am operating with primitive equipment here. The news story is that a kid was attending Harvard after having faked his entire application package. Fake “A’s” from schools he did attend, fake transcripts from schools he never attended. Faked letters of recommendation (real letters copied on letterheads from other schools), faked essays and publications. He is facing charges on the grounds of taking scholarship money by fraud. OK, got it. **Had he only faked his was into the university, did he break any criminal law?** Of course forging a signature is actionable under civil law. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/2 "2010-05-19T15:07:53Z")
If those documents were sent by the US Postal Service, he might be charged with [mail fraud](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_fraud). ---
**Author:** ![Indian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@Indian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indian)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/3 "2010-05-19T15:08:36Z")
Link [[Prosecutor: Ex-Harvard student pleads not guilty to faking credentials - CNN.com](http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/18/massachusetts.harvard.student/index.html)]([http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/18](http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/18) /massachusetts.harvard.student/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/4 "2010-05-19T15:11:39Z")
IANAL but I would think any misrepresentation through forged documents is a fraud. You don’t have to accept money to be committing a fraud. Like any contract, you receive a benefit or consideration. He wouldn’t have gotten into a prestigious university without the forgery. The university admission is a benefit. So he obtained a consideration with forged documents - fraud. (IIRC, people who claim to be a celebrity and therefore get free goodies given to them have been prosecuted as fraud artists; but sometimes that’s for just getting stuff on credit by impersonation…) ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/5 "2010-05-19T15:16:15Z")
Can’t speak to Massachusetts law, but if he had attempted to gain admission to a Virginia university, he would have run afoul of Va Code § 18.2-172, which prohibits any attempt to “employ as true” any forged writing. § 18.2-168 forbids the forgery and use of any public record, so if the fake transcripts purported to include diplomas or transcripts from a public high school, I would think that would be a sustainable charge. Our fake Harvard guy produced fake transcripts as a transfer student from M.I.T. This would be prohibited in Virginia by § 18.2-172.1, criminalizing the use of a false or forged “transcript or diploma from an institution of postsecondary education” for the purpose of furthering one’s education. This is not an exhaustive review, by any means. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/6 "2010-05-21T04:55:48Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Please excuse my lack of a link, I am operating with primitive equipment here. > > The news story is that a kid was attending Harvard after having faked his entire application package. Fake “A’s” from schools he did attend, fake transcripts from schools he never attended. Faked letters of recommendation (real letters copied on letterheads from other schools), faked essays and publications… Why can’t MY students show this kind of drive? This attention to detail? And a willingness to actually write a letter. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/7 "2010-05-21T15:26:12Z")
If Harvard’s waiting list is numbered, could the first person that list have a civil action against him for taking a spot that otherwise would have gone to her? Conversion by deceit? Unlawful enrichment? ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/8 "2010-05-21T15:39:04Z")
I am pretty sure there are forgery charges at hand, because he switched letterheads, among other things. Forgery goes way beyond the faking of a person’s signature. He forged documents. It’s probably chock full of legal details, but at the end of the day, he will be charged with a number of things, including forgery. So, faking your way in almost guarantees some sort of forgery if the faking part involves documentation. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/9 "2010-05-23T08:20:51Z")
Not to endorse this kind of behavior or anything, but doesn’t such an elaborate fakery indicate sufficient intelligence and drive to attend a place of higher learning, if perhaps not Harvard? ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2010, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/forgery-fakery/540001/10 "2010-05-23T10:03:27Z")
It does, but it also shows a considerable lack of ethics, something more at home in places like Yale or Brown 😉