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Fraud Continued from Page 1
information to U.S. News about
the number of Fox’s OMBA and
PMBA students who had taken
the Graduate Management
Admission Test, the average
work experience of Fox’s PMBA
students and the percentage of
Fox students enrolled part-time.

U.S. News ranked Fox’s
OMBA program No. 1 in the
country from 2015 to 2018 and
moved Fox’s PMBA program
up its rankings based on the
allegedly false information.

High rankings on the U.S. News
surveys are desirable for colleges
and universities attempting to
attract potential students and
millions of dollars in tuition.

Porat promoted
these rankings in marketing materials
aimed at donors and potential
students, according to the indict-
ment. Enrollment in Fox’s OMBA
and PMBA programs grew
dramatically in a few short years,
which increased tuition revenue
by millions of dollars annually.

“The success of the higher
education system in the United
States relies not only on the
academic excellence and rigor
of the programs offered, and
not only on the aptitude and
hard work of the applicants
and students, but also on trans-
parency and honesty about
the system itself,” Acting U.S.

Attorney Jennifer Arbittier
Williams said during a press
conference. “Moshe Porat allegedly
misrepresented information
about Fox’s application and
acceptance process, and there-
fore the student body itself, in
order to defraud the rankings
system, potential students and
donors. His conduct, as alleged,
undermines the integrity of the
entire academic system and
forever hurts the students who
worked so hard for admission,”
Williams said.

Porat’s defense attorney,
Michael A. Schwartz, said his
client denies the allegations.

“Dr. Porat dedicated forty
years of his life to serving Temple
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Moshe Porat
Courtesy of Temple University Fox School
of Business
said the university was aware
of the indictment and could not
comment on the substance of
the criminal investigation or
related charges, except to say
that the university will continue
to cooperate with the appro-
priate law enforcement agencies.

“What we can say is
that the ongoing discovery
process in Porat’s defamation
lawsuit against Temple in the
Philadelphia Court of Common
Pleas has uncovered facts
previously unavailable to the
university. This new information
confirms Temple’s decision to
remove Porat as dean of the Fox
School of Business in July 2018,”
the statement said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
reported that the fallout for
the exposure of the fraudulent
data has cost Temple millions
in legal settlements with the
Department of Education and
the Pennsylvania Attorney
General’s Office. The school paid
$4 million to settle a class-action
lawsuit filed by former students
of its online MBA program who
claimed the scandal devalued
their degrees.

Temple tightened procedures
for reporting rankings data
across the university in response
to the incident. Fox’s PMBA
program is now ranked 41st out
of 273 schools and the OMBA
program ranks 100th out of
295 schools.

Porat received his under-
graduate degree and MBA
from Tel Aviv University and
his doctorate from Temple.

He was active in several local
Jewish organizations and was
listed as a board member of
the America-Israel Chamber of
Commerce in his Temple bio.

In June 2016, Hillel of Greater
Philadelphia honored Porat
for his campus leadership and
advocacy for Israel.

The Inquirer reported that
Porat does remain on Temple’s
staff. He makes about $316,000
a year, but doesn’t have formal
duties. l
University, first as a faculty
member, and ultimately as Dean
of the Fox Business School, and
he did so with distinction,”
Schwartz said in a statement.

“He looks forward to defending
himself against these charges
and to clearing his name.”
Gottlieb and O’Neill were
charged separately from Porat
with one count of conspiracy
to commit wire fraud. All three
lost their jobs in 2018 after the
school’s misrepresentations were
discovered. Porat worked at Temple for
43 years, including 22 years
as dean. He filed a defama-
tion lawsuit in 2019 against the
university and its president,
Richard Englert, seeking $25
million. Porat claimed Temple
shifted the blame to him during
the public relations crisis by
intentionally omitting infor-
mation from communications
materials. “The administration took
away the job I loved, damaged
my health, destroyed my reputa-
tion and the legacy of my life’s
work I spent decades building,”
Porat said at a press conference
that year. “Temple leadership
did this with a false narrative
invented for its expediency in
public relations — and to deflect
attention from the university’s
own role in all of this.”
In an email statement, Ray
Betzner, associate vice presi-
dent of strategic marketing and spanzer@jewishexponent.com;
communications at Temple, 215-832-0729
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