A Pakistani man, Umair Hamid, 31, of Karachi, Pakistan, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for his role in an international diploma mill scheme operated through the Pakistani company Axact.
According to the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Joon H. Kim, Umair Hamid helped run a massive diploma mill through his employer, Axact, which has held itself out as one of the world’s leading information technology providers.
Hamid and his co-conspirators deceived individuals across the world, including throughout the United States, into enrolling in supposed high schools, colleges, and universities. Consumers paid upfront fees, believing that in return they would be enrolled in real educational courses and, eventually, receive legitimate degrees.
Instead, consumers received no instruction and worthless diplomas. Hamid, who served most recently as Axact’s Assistant Vice President of International Relations, helped Axact conduct the fraud in the United States, among other locations.
On Axact’s behalf, he served as the primary contact during negotiations with a former competitor for Axact’s acquisition of websites for fake educational institutions. Under Axact’s control, those websites then continued to deceive consumers into paying upfront enrollment fees for non-existent educational programs.
In May 2015, Pakistani authorities shut down Axact and arrested multiple individuals associated with the company for participating in the diploma mill operation. But Hamid, who was not arrested at that time, continued to work in furtherance of the fraudulent business, even personally traveling to the United States in 2016 to open a bank account used to collect money from defrauded consumers.
Hamid, who entered a guilty plea on April 6, 2017, was ordered to forfeit $5,303,020.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Edward A. Imperatore, Noah D. Solowiejczyk, Katherine Reilly, Patrick Egan, and David Abramowicz are in charge of the prosecution.
Key Facts
- State: New York
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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