How a single Reddit post exposed a student at elite college as a fraud who lied his way into the school
A single Reddit post exposed a student at an elite university as a fraudster who lied his way into the school — and faced major legal consequences.
Aryan Anand, 19, a former student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was exposed as a total fraud after a post on Reddit exposed his web of lies.
Earlier this month, Anand pleaded guilty to forgery in Northampton County after it was revealed that his entire college application had been fabricated.
The international student was arrested after researchers on the Reddit forum found a post written by an anonymous user they believed to be Anand, captioned: “I built my life and career on lies.”
The post detailed how he created a fraudulent admissions application and financial aid paperwork to gain admission to Lehigh, which has an acceptance rate of 37 percent and tuition of nearly $60,000 per year.
A single Reddit post exposed a student at an elite university as a fraudster who lied his way into the school – potentially costing him up to 20 years in prison
Aryan Anand, 19, a former student at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was exposed as a total fraud after a Reddit post exposed his web of lies
The school was notified by a Reddit moderator and an investigation by university police took place.
The post reportedly did not mention the name of the school, but the moderator may have made the correct guess after seeing that Anand was following Lehigh on the website.
“Defendant only had one other university that he attended, which was Lehigh University. So the moderator contacted Lehigh to notify them,” Northampton County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Weinert said. ABC6.
Investigators discovered that Anand had in fact posed as a school principal and created forged documents, including fake school transcripts, tax statements and a death certificate for his father, who is in fact very much alive and living in India.
“It was difficult to really verify these things. I think that was a great job by Lehigh and their police force. They were able to dig really deep and discovered that this was all really false,” Weinert added.
Anand was arrested in April and charged with multiple crimes, including forgery, tampering with documents, theft by deception and theft of services.
The post detailed how he created a fake admissions application and financial aid paperwork to gain admission to Lehigh, which has an acceptance rate of 37 percent and tuition of nearly $60,000 per year.
On June 12, he pleaded guilty to one count of forgery, classified as a second-degree felony.
Anand initially faced a prison sentence of 10 to 20 years, but at the university’s request his sentence was reduced to expulsion from school and deportation to India.
As part of the agreement for his return to India, the university waived the request for restitution, estimated at about $85,000.
Anand was subsequently transferred to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Lehigh University responded in a statement, saying it “appreciates the report to its ethics hotline and the careful investigation by the Lehigh University Police Department that led to the arrest of Aryan Anand.”