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UD is...
"Salty." (Scott McLemee)
"Unvarnished." (Phi Beta Cons)
"Splendidly splenetic." (Culture Industry)
"Except for University Diaries, most academic blogs are tedious."
(Rate Your Students)
"I think of Soltan as the Maureen Dowd of the blogosphere,
except that Maureen Dowd is kind of a wrecking ball of a writer,
and Soltan isn't. For the life of me, I can't figure out her
politics, but she's pretty fabulous, so who gives a damn?"
(Tenured Radical)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Who Says Adjunct Professors
Have No Influence?




'A former USC real estate professor, who ran an investment scam luring students and others with bogus claims of large returns in commercial developments, was sentenced to six years in federal prison, authorities said Tuesday.

Barry Landreth, 38, a Fullerton resident, has been ordered to surrender to custody by July 30.

He pleaded guilty in March to using his influence as an adjunct professor to persuade several students and others to invest large sums of money in purported real estate projects in Chicago and Las Vegas with promised returns of 190% within 30 to 45 days. Instead of investing the money, however, he used it, among other things, to buy a Cadillac Escalade.

A hearing has been set for Aug. 20 to determine the amount of restitution Landreth owes.'


Background on Barry here.


---latimes.com---

********************************

Update: In giving Landreth a harsh sentence, the judge said "he was convinced that Landreth's connection with the university facilitated the scheme." UD made this point about Landreth and other campus scammers last year in talking about his case: If you want to rip people off, get yourself a university teaching position. People think professors are more ethical than the general population -- less obviously interested in the profit motive or something.

This might be true about your Latin instructor. Beware the business school.

Barry's remorse was eloquent:


'Landreth told Carney he has "an incredibly heavy heart for my actions." Turning to victims in the courtroom, he said, "I know you guys hate me at this moment. I really hope that at some point you will accept my apologies. I'm 100 percent committed to make each one of you whole."'


This language makes UD very jolly. She's not sure why. I mean, she's giggling right now, reading it over.

Let me say it out loud and see what happens....

I laughed again!

100 percent committed to make each of you whole!




UD thanks a reader, SC, who provided this material in the comments thread.