In United States v. Amiri et al., several former California police officers were convicted of wire fraud in August 2024 for participating in a diploma-for-hire scheme. The officers—Morteza Amiri, Patrick Berhan, Samantha Peterson, Ernesto Juan Mejia-Orozco, and Brauli Rodriguez—paid Berhan’s ex-wife (referred to as “Individual-1”) to complete their criminal justice coursework at California Coast University (CCU). The goal was to fraudulently obtain degrees and secure salary raises tied to educational credentials.
Individual-1 accessed the officers’ accounts, wrote their essays, and completed exams—charging $200 to $300 per class. Text messages revealed the transactional nature of the fraud, with messages like “Can she do 4 for 1K cash rite now lol!!!!!” and “Do me a solid and don’t tell a soul…we can’t afford it getting leaked.” These fraudulent degrees led to real financial and professional benefits, fundamentally breaching public trust.
Beyond the academic fraud, Amiri was separately convicted in March 2024 for violating a suspect’s civil rights by deploying a K-9 unnecessarily and falsifying a police report. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison. This case highlights how misconduct in one area often signals broader ethical failures.
At CIAA, we view this case as a powerful reminder of the dangers posed by commercial cheating services. These operations devalue legitimate education, reward dishonesty, and in public sectors, can fuel corruption. That’s why we support legislation to outlaw the sale of academic cheating services. In the CCU case, the individuals buying the services were prosecuted, but there does not appear to have been a consequence to the seller of the cheating services (i.e. Individual 1). Our model legislation closes that gap and would arm the government and sponsors – in this case, CCU – with powerful remedies against her.
For more information visit the links below:
Officer gets prison in connection with K9 biting biker: feds | Miami Herald
CIAA is not selling or endorsing these materials.
