Wharton MBA student charged with fraud

Question

https://www.thedp.com/article/2019/12/p ... technology Very bad look for Wharton. What's worse is that admissions let him in knowing he was involved with this stuff. Here's an article from 2017 detailing a lot of the same stuff: https://www.wsj.com/articles/outcome-a- ... 1507834627 Has Wharton just stopped caring about ethics?

erlandgas · Answer

World's absolutely filled with greed. I'm not even surprised that it happened at Wharton. You need to be smart to pull it off and be very money hungry both of which Wharton students are.

xprometheusx · Answer

You can literally say that about anyone that attends top business schools. Look at all the bribery things that went on there were Stanford and Harvard MBA alumns

Businessconquerer · Answer

Trump family went to Wharton, you tell me

bb · Answer

I don’t know that they had a ruling or ability to decide that there was fraud since the person wasn’t proven guilty until now. Having a controversy about a company one at work that is not a reason to keep someone from business school. Unless I’m missing something... it’s not a great publicity for Wharton now but who knows how the decision was made or what this guy may have told the adcom and what story he spun.

I guess we can see what move Wharton will make now. That is the interesting question.

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I guess we can see what move Wharton will make now. That is the interesting question.

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Businessconquerer · Answer

Yes, accusation isn't conviction

humblebot · Answer

^^To be clear they are still not "proven guilty", but IMO having public allegations that you committed fraud are absolutely a reason to get denied from business school.

My guess is there are three possibilities:

1) Wharton missed this. It didn't pop up in their standard application/background check so they never found out. If so, shame on them.
2) It came up but they weren't smart enough to realize how big of a deal it was
3) They willfully ignored it because the kid's parents were donors or something like that

humblebot · Answer

Did you read the 2017 article? It's a lot more than just "having a controversy". He allegedly actively misled clients and investors. Maybe the allegations are false, but in a world where there are more than enough qualified applicants to fill a class, you'd think this would be enough to ding the guy.

bb · Answer

I admit that I just glanced and did not read every word of the article this morning but how do you know that Wharton actually knew? (is there a reference in the article)? Are you saying they actually reviewed this in the applicant consideration and said "we are OK?" or possibly that it was not disclosed to them and did not show up on background check ins it was allegedly... but not proven or indited.

humblebot · Answer

1) He was named in a major news publication. If Wharton didn't find out in the application/background check process, that's negligence.

2) Yes, it is alleged and he wasn't indicted, but if the WSJ felt confident enough in the source to publish it, then there's sure as hell something there. Would you hire someone who had similar allegations published about them in the news?

At the end of the day, you're right that we don't know what Wharton knew. We can only judge based on results and this is pretty bad. As a Wharton student myself, I'm personally embarassed that we're associated with this clown.

bb · Answer

My guess is they did not know. At the same time, Wharton has a class size of 800 students and probably h ad 7,000 applicants who don't trigger google alerts. I am not sure if they even remembered all the applicants and their names to go back and check on them or perhaps this person applied in R2 in Jan, way after the Oct publication of this article. I guess it is not hard to see how this information would be lost and overlooked.

The main question is would they have done anything differently if they had known... and I am not sure and thinking perhaps not.One of my classmates was handcuffed by the cops in the classroom. They entered, handcuffed him, and took him out in his BSchool clothes (it was a domestic abuse charge) but in any case, he did not get kicked out or placed on probation or anything like that. I also had classmates get DUI's which is a felony and the only implication is that they could be deported if they were international students since that conflicts with the Visa law but I don't think you get kicked out of BSchool. I guess there is no rule for former felons going to universities either. The only thing is that they won't get gov loans/grants but nothing prevents them from attending, except a University policy potentially. It is an interesting question.

bb · Answer

Any more developments on this one?

humblebot · Answer

He pleaded guilty and is cooperating: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html Sentencing TBD. Also TBD whether Wharton will let him complete his degree after he gets out.

bb · Answer

Thank you. Very interesting indeed. Depending on the cooperating part, he may get away without having to serve any time.... but that seems potentially remote....

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humblebot · Answer

From a different source: "But prosecutors made clear in court today that they expect for Desai to do time in federal prison. He faces a maximum of 20 years, but prosecutors say they won’t ask for more than 10 years." https://www.chicagobusiness.com/john-pl ... cent-fraud Seems like he's going to do time.

bb · Answer

Which means at least 5 years even with an early release. Ouch. That’s a big change and a huge adjustment.... wow.

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bb · Answer

Looks like he was just 19 studying at Northwestern when this started happening.... and seems lasted about 4-5 years... ?

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bb · Answer

Wharton MBA student charged with fraud

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