A U.S. District Court in Boston sentenced Arijit Kumar Chowdhury (M '00), a graduate of Tufts' School of Medicine, to 364 days in prison, two years of supervised release, and deportation to his native India on Tuesday, April 19.
Chowdhury was found guilty of identity fraud and stealing funds intended for loans and scholarships.
At a hearing in December, Chowdhury pled guilty to a three-count indictment charging him with fraud in connection to his obtainment of $98,865 in federally-guaranteed Stafford loans, fraud in obtaining a half-tuition scholarship to the School of Medicine, and making false statements to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in obtaining $36,666 under the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students program.
Chowdhury entered the United States in the late 1980s on a student visa. He spent two years at Texas A&M University until his visa expired and he was forced to leave college.
He stayed in the United States, however, took the name 'Steve Valdez,' and used the social security number of a person with a similar name. He was admitted to Oberlin College in Ohio and later to the School of Medicine under this assumed alias, graduating in May 2000.
While at Tufts, Chowdhury received upwards of $135,000 in scholarship funds and loans under the name of Steve Valdez. In addition to a mandatory year of prison time and deportation, Chowdhury's sentence also includes the payment of restitution to Tufts and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Chowdhury graduated in the top third of his medical school class under his alias, with a Masters of Public Health and an M.D., which have been revoked by the School of Medicine, according to Dickens Mathieu, senior labor and employment counsel to Tufts.
"When Tufts became aware of the loan and scholarship fraud, we conducted a review of the facts and subsequently revoked his degrees," Mathieu wrote in an e-mail.
According to Mathieu, the University "now consider[s] the matter closed."
