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KARACHI, Pakistan — Pakistani investigators arrested the chief executive of Axact, a software company accused of running a global diploma mill, early Wednesday after discovering a storage room filled with blank fake degrees.
巴基斯坦卡拉奇——巴基斯坦的调查人员于周三早些时候在软件公司Axact发现了一个装满空白假学位证书的储藏室后，指控该公司运行一个全球性的文凭伪造工厂，逮捕了公司的首席执行官。
The chief executive, Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh, and four other Axact executives were initially charged with fraud, forgery and illegal electronic money transfers, law enforcement officials said. The charges were later expanded to include money laundering and violating Pakistan’s electronic crimes act.
执法人员表示，首席执行官沙耶布·艾哈迈徳·谢赫(Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh)及其他四名Axact高管最初被指控犯有欺诈、伪造和非法电子资金转移罪。他们被指控的罪名后来增添了洗钱、以及违反巴基斯坦的电子犯罪法。
The arrests were a sharp blow to a company that claimed to be Pakistan’s biggest software exporter and that was on the cusp of starting a major television network. Axact has been under investigation since May 19, after an article in The New York Times described how the company had made millions of dollars by running hundreds of fake online education websites.
这些人被逮捕是对这个自称为巴基斯坦最大软件出口商的公司的强烈打击，该公司正打算启动一个主要的电视网络。自从5月19日《纽约时报》发表一篇文章，描述了该公司如何通过运作几百个假的在线教育网站赚取了数百万美元之后，Axact公司受到调查。
Since then, federal investigators have sealed Axact offices in Karachi and Islamabad and requested help from Interpol and the F.B.I. Mr. Shaikh sought to defend himself in a series of television interviews and video appeals, and he asked the courts to halt the investigation.
从那时起，联邦调查人员查封了Axact在卡拉奇和伊斯兰堡的办公室，并向国际刑警和美国联邦调查局寻求帮助。谢赫曾试图在一系列电视采访和视频呼吁中为自己辩护，他还要求法庭停止调查。
But his legal move proved unsuccessful, and late Tuesday, after hours of questioning, he led investigators to a building next to the Axact headquarters in the upscale Karachi neighborhood of Defence.
但他所采取的法律措施没有成功，周二晚，在接受了几个小时的讯问之后，他把调查人员带到设在国防部附近的卡拉奇高档社区的Axact总部大楼。
Inside, they found a room filled with blank certificates bearing the letterheads of dozens of fake universities and high schools operated by Axact under names like Bay View, Cambell State, Oxdell and Nixon.
在大楼里，调查人员发现了一个房间，里面装满了带有Axact经营的假大学和假高中名字的空白文凭，学校名称包括湾景(Bay View)、堪布贝尔州立(Cambell State)、欧克斯贝尔(Oxdell)，以及尼克松(Nixon)。
“There were hundreds of thousands of documents there,” said Shahid Hayat, head of the local office of the Federal Investigation Agency, which is leading the inquiry.
“在那里找到了成千上万的证书，”领导此次调查的联邦调查机构当地办事处的负责人沙希德·哈亚特(Shahid Hayat)说。
Pakistani television networks broadcast images of the room, and of Mr. Shaikh, wearing a black polo shirt with the Axact logo, being led to a car waiting outside the office. As he got into the car, he could be heard telling officials of the investigation agency that he would “see to every one of them.”
巴基斯坦电视台网播放了该房间和身穿带有Axact标志的黑色马球衫的谢赫的图片，他被带进一辆等待在办公楼外的车子。当他上车时，可以听到他对该调查机构的官员说，他会“留意他们每个人”。
Mr. Hayat, the investigator, expressed surprise at the remark. “I don’t think he can threaten us,” he said.
调查员哈亚特对上述言论表示诧异。他说，“我觉得他不可能威胁我们。”
Mr. Shaikh appeared in court later on Wednesday. A judge granted the Federal Investigation Agency custody of Mr. Shaikh and the four other executives until June 4. Investigators had said earlier that they would seek to extend his detention by 14 days while they examined the Axact network, which spans a number of countries and includes several offshore companies.
谢赫随后在周三出现在法庭上。法官批准了联邦调查机构将谢赫及其他四名高管拘留到6月4日。调查人员早些时候曾表示，在他们检查Axact网络的同时，他们将寻求将拘留期延长14天，该公司的网络跨越多个国家，还包括几个离岸公司。
Axact’s online activities appear to have effectively shut down. Attempts by a reporter to contact sales agents at 221 of the company’s websites in recent days produced no response. Several of the fake accreditation bodies set up by the company, in a bid to bestow legitimacy on the universities, have gone offline.
Axact的网上活动似乎已基本上停止。记者最近几天曾试图联系该公司221个网站的销售代理，但无人响应。该公司为给这些大学赋予合法性而设立的几家假鉴定机构也已经下线。
Pakistan has requested F.B.I. assistance because many of the universities run by Axact purported to be based in the United States, operated bank accounts and mailboxes there and sold fake degrees to Americans. Axact sales agents also sold State Department authentication certificates bearing Secretary of State John Kerry’s signature.
巴基斯坦已要求美国联邦调查局提供帮助，因为许多Axact运作的大学号称设在美国，在美国有银行帐户和邮箱，并向美国人出售假文凭。 Axact的销售代理还出售带有美国国务卿约翰·克里(John Kerry)签名的认证证书。
Experts say that fake degrees can pose dangers to public safety and national security in many parts of the world and can enable immigration fraud. They can also have serious consequences for customers who are caught using them.
专家们说，假学位会给世界许多地方的公共安全和国家安全造成危害，可为移民欺诈制造便利，也会给被发现使用它们的客户带来严重后果。
Two former Axact officials, speaking separately, said that in 2009, an American married couple, both members of the United States military serving in Iraq, emailed Axact to say that they faced courts-martial for having presented academic credentials bought from a university run by Axact.
Axact的两名前高管曾在2009年分别表示，作为美国军方人员并同在伊拉克服役的一对美国夫妇给Axact发电子邮件称，他们因提供从Axact运作的一所大学买来的学历证明而面临军事法庭审判。
The couple requested an accreditation certificate from the university to help defend themselves, said Ahmed, a former sales agent who asked that his last name not be used. An Axact manager instructed subordinates to block the couple’s calls, he said.
据前销售代理艾哈迈德(Ahmed)说——他要求记者不给出他的姓——这对夫妇为在法庭上帮助自己辩护，请求该大学提供认证证书。艾哈迈德说，Axact的一名经理曾指示下属屏蔽这对夫妇打来的电话。
Mr. Shaikh has vehemently denied any wrongdoing but admitted some involvement in the online degree business. In his last video message before his arrest, he said Axact provided telephone support and what he termed “document management services” for other companies. He did not identify those companies.
谢赫一直极力否认有任何不当行为，但承认参与了网上学位生意。在被捕之前制作的最后视频信息中，他说，Axact为其他公司提供电话支持、以及他称之为“文件管理服务”的业务。他没有透露这些公司的名字。
The scandal has cast a cloud over Bol, the Axact television and newspaper group that had planned to begin broadcasting in June. On Saturday, the network’s editor in chief and several leading journalists resigned, after Pakistan’s interior minister spoke of “substantive” evidence against Axact.
这一丑闻已让Bol蒙上阴影，Bol是Axact的电视和报业集团，曾计划在六月开始运营。上周六，在巴基斯坦内政部长提到针对Axact的“大量证据”后，该媒体网络的主编和几位知名记者辞职。
