Ex-WVU professor accused of fraud

Federal authorities in Pittsburgh have filed an extradition request for a former West Virginia University and Virginia Commonwealth University medical professor from India accused of falsifying his credentials to get grants at WVU, lying to immigration authorities, improperly using his WVU purchasing card, and forging signatures of professors on fake recommendation letters.

The Department of Homeland Security is seeking Anoop Shankar, 43, who was charged with fraud by federal prosecutors in West Virginia in 2015. The case remains under seal. Mr. Shankar worked in WVU’s Department of Community Medicine in 2008 and left the school in 2014, after which he moved to VCU.

Agents believe he left the country in 2014 and was most recently living in the United Arab Emirates, although Interpol recently related that he has traveled to India, according to an extradition affidavit.

Homeland Security Investigations Pittsburgh and authorities in West Virginia began investigating Mr. Shankar in 2015 on suspicion of defrauding WVU of some $617,000 in salary he was paid, as well as purchasing fraud he is accusing of committing in submitting false travel expenses and forged letters of professors in the U.S. and abroad that he submitted to stay in the U.S.

According to the affidavit, Mr. Shankar was living in Singapore when he applied for the faculty position at WVU in 2007.

Agents said he lied that he had a doctorate in epidemiology and medical statistics from Mahatma Ghandi University and that he had attended medical residency at All India Institute of Medical Sciences.

He also falsely claimed membership in various top-drawer organizations and falsely claimed authorship of numerous medical research articles.

Based on the false credentials, WVU offered him the job and filed a form called a petition for a nonimmigrant worker on his behalf with U.S. immigration authorities.

In 2010, the school filed another form for him to become a permanent resident that included nine letters of support from professors that agents later found out were fake.

WVU had no knowledge of the fraudulent documents at the time.

Agents said Mr. Shankar’s lies were discovered in 2012 when he was being considered for a newly created epidemiology position.

Ian R.H. Rockett, a WVU professor and chair of the promotion and tenure committee, discovered the fake credentials and false publications.

Agents said Mr. Shankar then enlisted two students, Deeban Ganesan and Srinivas Teppala, to make false claims of sexual harassment against Dr. Rockett in an attempt to discredit him. HSI said Mr. Ganesan later recanted, the accusations were determined to be lies, and the two students were expelled.

In March 2014, Mr. Shankar left for a new position as an associate professor at VCU, using some of the same falsified records that he used to get hired at WVU.

He left the country in October of that year.

“It is believed that Shankar departed based upon the pending investigation of his credentials,” wrote Scott Fell, an HSI agent.