Former Great Neck North High School student Sam Eshaghoff told a national television audience this weekend that he thought he found “an easy way to make money” when he was paid thousands of dollars to take the SAT standardized test at least 16 times for local students over a period of several years.
During a CBS New “60 Minutes” interview aired on Sunday, Eshaghoff was characterized by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice as “an academic gun for hire” for his role in the SAT and ACT cheating scandal, which had already brought national media attention and resulted in the arrests of 20 other local students for their roles in the SAT and ACT cheating ring.
“This case has received national attention because the cheating epidemic we uncovered in Nassau County could be happening anywhere in America, and the kids who play by the rules are the real victims,” Rice said Tuesday in a statement released in regards to the “60 Minutes” interview.
“My office continues to work with the College Board, (Educational Testing Service) and ACT to fix the gaping holes in their test security, and to ensure colleges, high schools and parents are notified when students cheat.”
While much of the interview focused on Eshaghoff and the steps he took to defraud the country’s standardized testing system, Rice also provided new details in regard to the scope of the scandals’ ongoing investigation.
According to CBS News, more than 50 students in four counties have now been implicated in the investigation.
“We know there are students who met with someone who acted as a middleman who said, ‘Tell me what you want. Tell me what you need. How much money do you have? Okay, I’ll set up the test-taker. And they’ll take the test for you,'” Rice said during the interview. “I mean, this is big business. And it didn’t just start in 2011. This has been going on, this criminal impersonation has been going on for years. Decades. All across the country.”
Eshaghoff, now a student at Emory University, did not shy away from Rice’s characterization as an “academic gun for hire.” He called himself a “business person,” during the interview, while noting his “good track record” and strong “referral system” in relation to the cheating ring in which he was paid between $500 and $3,600 to take the SAT for struggling students.
“A kid who has a horrible grade-point average, who no matter how much he studies, is gonna totally bomb this test. By giving him an amazing score, I totally give him this like, a new lease on life,” Eshaghoff said. “He’s gonna go to a totally new college, he’s gonna be bound for a totally new career and a totally new path in life.”
In September, Eshaghoff was arrested and faced up to four years in prison in relation to felony charges, for his role in the cheating ring.
According to “60 Minutes,” Eshaghoff accepted a plea deal six months ago and will tutor low-income students on strategies for taking the SAT as community service.
Eshaghoff’s attorney Matin Emouna did not return telephone calls seeking comment for this story.
Chris Munzing, deputy communications director with the district attorney’s office, declined comment on the existence of a plea deal for Eshaghoff.
“I knew I was doing the wrong thing,” Eshaghoff said during the interview. “I fully acknowledge that this was the wrong move. And I gotta stop this. But I was low on cash and I just told myself, ‘one last time, one last time, one last time.'”
Eshaghoff, whose mother Janet is president of the Great Neck Library Board, said during the interview that he created fake school IDs in order to take the tests. He said he took advantage of minimal security procedures at testing sites.
“I realized that the proctors were just like junior faculty members and like cafeteria aides and like staff that really had no business proctoring a test,” Eshaghoff said.
“I mean, how hard would it be to trick a cafeteria aide into letting you sit in that seat?” he added.
Although Eshaghoff has become the most prominent of the local students to be arrested for cheating on the SAT, he said during the interview that he wasn’t the first at Great Neck North to be paid to take the standardized test.
“I had heard of it happening successfully in my own high school,” Eshaghoff said.
Kurt Landgraf, president of the Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT for the College Board, said during the interview that he doesn’t believe standardized test cheating is a “common occurrence.”
But, Landgraf said he also wasn’t surprised that Eshaghoff was able to cheat the system.
“Well, if he had an ID with his picture on it and a name and the registration document had that name on it, he could get in, sure,” Landgraf said. “No, unfortunately it doesn’t surprise me.”
Last month, Great Neck North graduates Michael Pomerantz and Joshua Chefec were arrested, along with Great Neck South High School alum George Trane and North Shore Hebrew Academy graduate Adam Justin for being paid to take the SAT and ACT tests for local students. Also as part of the second round of arrests, nine other unidentified students turned themselves in to authorities for paying to have tests taken for them.
The district attorneys office investigation into the cheating ring is ongoing.
Currently, 20 students have been arrested for cheating on the SAT and ACT in Nassau County. Of those students, 15 either currently attend or graduated from Great Neck North.
Great Neck School District Superintendent Thomas Dolan did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
“This was a huge fraud from my perspective,” Rice said to “60 Minutes” on Sunday. “This was lots of money changing hands, there were high stakes involved, and there was forgery, there was criminal impersonation. That’s a fraud. That’s a fraud on many different levels, but most importantly against the kids who play by the rules.”
Reach reporter John Santa by e-mail at jsanta@theislandnow.com or by phone at 516.307.1045 x203
