Since 1999, and continuing to this day, my son has been victimized,
endangered and libeled by the National Academy of American Scholars,
Inc., and its mirror operation, Education USA Management, Ltd. and
Golden Bear Media, which are being run as one scholar****p scam entity.
Fortunately, I was finally able to interest Samuel G. Freedman of The
New York Times in the situation, and on November 17, 2004, he wrote an
article in the paper which I have attached to this letter.
I would appreciate it if you would remove the link before anyone else
is harmed by this vicious operation.
Sincerely,
Larry Centor
ON EDUCATION
Apply Here for Scholar****p, and Prepare to Be Smeared
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN
JOSH CENTOR was loosening up for baseball practice at Brandeis
University one afternoon in the spring of 2003 when an assistant coach
stopped him in mid-stretch. "Centor, I was checking you out online,"
he said. "Apparently you're some kind of terrorist. And something
about a 'federal complaint.' What's going on?"
That wasn't even the half of it. The coach had clicked onto a Web site
that started by comparing Josh to John Walker Lindh, the American
member of the Taliban, and charging him with theft in an imitation
legal document. The site also likened Josh's family to several Mafia
dynasties, implied he had had a ***ual relation****p with his rabbi,
and claimed he "has publicly defied the Christian Bible, used the word
'Christian' as if it were an obscenity."
What was going on, Josh knew, was the same campaign of character
assassination that had been plaguing him for years, and continues to
this day. Like at least a half-dozen other young people around the
country, Josh has been vilified on the Internet by an organization to
which all applied for a college scholar****p, an outfit called the
National Academy of American Scholars.
Despite complaints by several of these victims and their parents to
state and federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and
the United States Postal Service, the pur****ted academy continues to
solicit applicants for a fee on its Web site. It has avoided scrutiny
by supplying incorrect or nonexistent addresses and disconnected or
unrelated telephone numbers to public authorities in California and
Nevada, the two states from which it has operated.
As several students and parents described their experiences with the
"National Academy" in recent interviews or e-mail messages, a standard
kind of pattern emerged. Most had first learned of the outfit's
"Easley National Scholar****p," offering awards as high as $10,000
solely on the basis of academic merit, from guidance counselors or
financial-aid Web sites that themselves had mistakenly perceived the
"National Academy" as a reputable organization.
Its name and presentation to the contrary, the "National Academy" was
a for-profit company. It charged applicants fees of about $20 to $30
to be considered for the Easley scholar****p. While some students
recall having wondered about paying for the right to compete, the
prospect of a scholar****p far outweighed their wariness. At the point
they were applying in the years between 1999 and 2001, none knew that
the Better Business Bureau for the Los Angeles region already had
rated the
"National Academy" as having an "unsatisfactory business performance
record."
So Josh Centor, very typically, rounded up recommendation letters,
wrote a personal essay and submitted his grades from Hunter College
High School in New York City. Others, like Adam David Chandler,
currently a junior at Duke University, were required by the "National
Academy" to submit items like Social Security number, photograph and
photocopy of a driver's license.
In Josh's case, the "National Academy" informed him that he had made
the cut to be a semifinalist, then stopped communicating, and grew
hostile after his father began sending e-mail messages asking who had
won. Other students received payouts, most in the range of $200 to
$750, that were less than the "National Academy" had promised them;
they were attacked after pursuing the matter. Still others, including
Adam Chandler, had
payments halted for picayune violations of supposed rules. All have
come to regret the day they ever set eyes on the application for the
"Easley National Scholar****p."
"When I read the vicious attacks against me, I can't believe all of
this came from something I applied to innocently," said Zeb Eckert, a
graduate of George Wa****ngton University now working as a producer for
the Japanese television network NHK. "I'm called a turncoat, a liar, a
male prostitute, someone with 'dubious integrity.' "
On its linked set of Web sites, the "National Academy" also has
published the photograph, home address, and even Social Security
number of several students, raising fears of both identity theft and
physical threat. The sites also pillory university administrators who
were associated with the students -including Linda J. Schutjer, the
associate general counsel at George Wa****ngton; and Lori Crooks, a
financial-aid officer at Duke.
Regardless of the target, the Web sites tied to the "National Academy"
espouse anti-Semitism. One passage extols Henry Ford for "his
insightful books detailing the culture, history, influences and
tactics of non-Christian/Bible-hating persons."
So the question inevitably arises: How can the "National Academy"
continue to operate? Law-enforcement and consumer-protection agencies
cannot claim not to know. Larry Centor, Josh's father, personally has
contacted the Postal Service, the Federal Trade Commission, his
congressman and the attorneys general of New York, Nevada, and
California. What he has to show for it is a $20 refund from the
"National Academy," issued under pressure from the Postal Service.
Gregory Ashe, a senior staff attorney for the Federal Trade
Commission, acknowledged that the agency has five complaints on file
against the "National Academy." Whether or not the scholar****p program
crossed the line into fraud depends on the minutia of its contracts
with applicants, he said. "It falls into a gray area," Mr. Ashe added.
If indeed the "National Academy" did break the law, though, it did so
in a very different style than the typical college-scholar****p scam.
In the usual con, a supposed expert persuades families to pay anywhere
from several hundred to several thousand dollars on the promise to
deliver more than that amount in scholar****p money, said David
Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for
College Admissions Counseling. The last thing such a criminal wants to
do is continue tormenting a victim who has already been suckered.
The "National Academy," in contrast, appears to thrive on defaming its
victims. And there is nothing very gray about its attacks. Except,
that is, for their precise source.
The group's incor****ation papers with the state of California list
only one individual by name - a Los Angeles lawyer, F. Andrew Afifi,
who was named as the "agent for service of process," meaning the
person designated to accept a subpoena. In a telephone interview last
week, Mr. Afifi said only that he had "represented them in suits in
the past." He refused to identify the principals of the "National
Academy," citing attorney-client privilege.
The Better Business Bureau's file on the "National Academy" lists its
"principal contact" as an "H. Borgstedt." There is no such person in
telephone or residential records for Southern California.
"If you use a publicly available means like the Internet, and if you
have an innocuous name," said Mr. Hawkins of the admissions counselors
group, "then 9 out of 10 times you can operate for a long time without
being found out. Or even 10 out of 10."
Copyright 2004
The New York Times Company
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