4 Ghanaian Students Arrested In US over Alleged High School Transcript Forgery
Four Ghanaians studying at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in the United States of America have been put before the law for allegedly forging their transcripts to gain admission.
The four have been identified as Otis Opoku, Evans Oppong, Cyrilstan Nomobon Sowah-Nai and Henry Dabuo.
They were arrested after the University’s Vice Provost of Admissions and Financial Aid Dan Werner, filed a forgery/fraud report with Lehigh University Police Department (LUPD) on August 23 according to the affidavits cited by The Brown and White- the college’s newspaper.
They were arrested on September 6, arraigned at Magisterial District Court and charged with forgery and theft of services on September 9.
They are currently awaiting preliminary hearings scheduled for September 24 and remain in the custody of the Northampton County Corrections Department as they are unable to meet their bail requirement, the newspaper reported.
Court documents cited in the publication noted that Opoku, a student since 2022, received financial aid totalling $212,933, while Sowah-Nai and Dabuo, who both started in 2023, were awarded financial aid worth $127,213 and $129,244, respectively.
The University got wind of the alleged treachery when it discovered some errors in the application of Jude Dabuo, the brother of Henry Dabuo, who was scheduled to start schooling this summer.
This prompted the Admissions Office to further look into his brother’s particulars which led them into unearthing similar errors on his transcripts. It further reached out to his high school for the original transcript which allegedly revealed some discrepancies.
The Office also dug into Opoku’s details as he had been mentioned as Henry Dabuo’s high school classmate in his application which also revealed similar errors.
Jude Dabuo’s application also mentioned Oppong and Sowah-Nai, according to the affidavits, prompting the Admissions Office to look into their application materials, the paper said.
The office therefore obtained both students’ official transcripts from their respective high schools and claims the transcripts submitted in their applications were materially different.
