Four Ghanaian students at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania in the United States of America (USA) have been arrested for using fraudulent transcripts to gain admission to the University.

Otis Opoku, Evans Oppong, Cyrilstan Nomobon Sowah-Nai, and Henry Dabuo, were arrested and charged with Theft of Services, Acquisition of Service Forgery, and Uttering Forged Writing. They were also dismissed from the University.

They are currently being held at the Northampton County Jail awaiting their next court date on September 24th.

According to prosecutors, the students submitted falsified high school transcripts to the University, inflating their grades to enable them to secure scholarships to the University. The fraud was discovered after Jude Dabuo, an elder brother of Henry’s, also used similarly fraudulent transcripts to secure admission for the upcoming semester.

His transcripts raised red flags and the others were all investigated, leading to their arrests.

Following the arrests of the students, a GoFundMe was started to help raise funds for their legal defence. According to the fundraiser, they have no resources to fight off the accusations. So far, the fundraiser has raised about $9,075 and has been closed down.