Fugitive Jean Nassif, wanted in Australia over an alleged $150 million fraud, and former Goldman Sachs boss Tim Leissner, who’s about to be sentenced in the US over one of the biggest financial scandals in history, have one thing in common.Jean Nassif is wanted over an outstanding warrant in relation to alleged fraud-related offences.“In 2006, Jean completed a Master of Science in the field of Construction Management from Somerset University,” claims Nassif on his LinkedIn page.
Somerset University was listed as one of many “bogus providers masquerading as genuine UK universities” by the UK’s official degree verification site as recently as 2017.“A worthless degree from a university that isn’t,” one British newspaper said of Somerset University, which was prosecuted and fined in the UK in 1992 for selling unrecognised degrees costing up to £2700 .
Creditors of one of those companies, JKN 3, which developed apartments in Botany, recently voted to liquidate the company.