Ivory Tower Phony? Sex, Lies and Fraud Alleged in W. Va. University Case
by Nona Willis Aronowitz and Tony Dokoupil
NBC News
September 2014
He seemed like the Doogie Howser of India, able to crack the country”™s best medical school, and work there as a 21-year-old doctor. Anoop Shankar later claimed to add a Ph.D. in epidemiology and treat patients even as he researched population-wide diseases. He won a “genius” visa to America, shared millions in grants, and boasted of membership in the prestigious Royal College of Physicians.
In 2012 West Virginia University hand-picked this international star to help heal one of the country”™s sickest states. At just 37, Shankar was nominated to the first endowed position in a new School of Public Health, backed by a million dollars in public funds. As chair of the epidemiology department, he was also poised to help the university spend tens of millions of additional tax dollars. “This is about improving healthcare and improving lives,” said university president Jim Clements, announcing a federal grant for health sciences. “We could not be more proud.”
But there was a problem: Shankar isn”™t a Ph.D. He didn”™t graduate from the Harvard of India. He didn”™t write dozens of the scholarly publications on his resume, and as for the Royal College of Physicians, they”™ve never heard of him. He does have a master”™s degree in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina and an Indian medical degree, but at least two of his green card references””attesting to “world class creativity,” “genius insight,” and “a new avenue for treating hypertension”””were a forgery.
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