From the Wall Street Journal:

The University of California, Irvine, says a Broadcom Corp. [NASDAQ:BRCM] executive didn’t earn two academic degrees listed in his corporate biography.

The Irvine, Calif., chip maker’s proxy statements say Vahid Manian, senior vice president of global manufacturing operations, earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the university.

The university says Mr. Manian studied electrical engineering between 1979 and 1983, but never graduated. “He did not earn a degree,” said Cathy Lawhon, a university spokeswoman.

And from Bloomberg:

Microsemi Corp. [NASDAQ: MSCC] Chief Executive Officer James Peterson and Broadcom Corp. Senior Vice President Vahid Manian, who both serve on the board of STEC Inc., claim to have earned degrees that their schools can’t verify.

Peterson, who lists degrees from Brigham Young University in government filings, never received them from that school, said Carri Jenkins, a university spokeswoman in Provo, Utah. He did take classes at Brigham Young from 1978 to 1980, Jenkins said.

[snip]

Peterson was awarded an associate’s degree in arts, sciences and general education from Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, in December 1978, said Kyle Martin, registrar of Brigham Young University Idaho. In 2001, Ricks College became Brigham Young University Idaho, which is separate from the school in Utah, he said. As a former junior college, it couldn’t have conferred a higher degree, he said.

“That’s not correct,” Peterson said, referring to the information provided by Brigham Young. “I’ll contact them immediately.”

These are executives number eleven and twelve to be exposed by Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute. And there are more to come. I wonder if the executives with phony degrees who are still standing (but not yet exposed) are getting a little nervous?

2 Comments

  1. Barbara 12/03/2008 at 12:36 pm - Reply

    Do you think these false credentials are really going to harm the companys these people work for or do you think it will just slide by like it never happened? Obviously the companys that hired them never did any checks on background information when they applied for jobs. I figured now a days they would be checking that stuff out. I guess they don’t care if their people actually graduated or went to the school they said they went to. As long as it sounds good and looks good on paper they will take them in.

  2. […] Fraud Discovery Institute announced that James Peterson, the CEO of Microsemi Corp (NASDAQ:MSCC) had neither the bachelor’s degree nor the master’s degree he claimed in numerous SEC […]

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