College prez is out, again, in sex scandal
The president of a Brooklyn for-profit college accused of using his perch to sexually abuse vulnerable students has resigned from his post for the second time in the last four years following a Daily News expose.
Alex Shchegol, the founder and long-time president of ASA College, an institution with roughly 3,000 students across three campuses in New York City and Florida, first quit in 2018 following a lawsuit alleging he used an employee to help him find women to abuse. The suit was later settled out of court for $500,000, according to documents reviewed by The News.
At least nine other women, including some foreign students, have come forward accusing Shchegol (photo) of sexual misconduct including rape, the Daily News reported in a November investigation. But the accusations didn’t stop Shchegol from engineering a comeback.
Last fall, Shchegol used his authority as sole owner of ASA to dismiss most of the college’s board of trustees. He replaced them with board members who voted him back into the presidency in October.
But Shchegol’s second act was short-lived.
He resigned his post effective Dec. 31, according to a Thursday email from interim board chair Frank Seddio, a former state assemblyman, Brooklyn Democratic Party chair and long-time friend of Shchegol. Seddio joked to The News in November that the board’s first move after reinstating Shchegol was to hire “two mohels ... to cut his d--- off.”
Seddio couldn’t be reached for comment.
Shchegol declined to comment on his resignation, but called a News reporter a “garbage journalist” before hanging up the phone. He previously denied the sexual-misconduct allegations.
Shchegol remains the sole owner of the college, said an ASA source.
Regulators that control the college’s purse strings began scrutinizing ASA College following The News scoop.
One government official in Florida said ASA’s tenure in the state was “not for long.” The commission responsible for accreditation issued a sharply worded letter in December warning that the college’s approval is in serious jeopardy.
ASA’s new president is Jose Valencia, the same official who took the reins after Shchegol’s first resignation.