French sentenced in absentia for fake schooling offers

TIRANA, Feb. 15 – The Tirana court sentenced in absentia a French citizen accused of fraud to five years imprisonment.
Bruno Hamard, 42, was accused of creating between 2003 and 2007 in Albania a branch of a ghost institute, IRERIE, that offered degrees of advanced studies in international relations to the Albanians.
The students, more than one hundred, had paid between 300 and 1,000 euros to take courses online and be eligible for a qualification at Masters and PhD levels.
The French had also organized several activities to ensure support from the authorities.
The education system in Albania is noting a boom in the last years with many private universities opened, often to the damage of the quality of schooling. They have turned, at this moment, into a good profitable business.