A $5 million Connecticut diploma mill, a guilty plea with no sentencing outcome found
James Enowitch of Cromwell, Connecticut ran at least seven websites posing as universities, Redding, Suffield, Glendale, Greenwood and Bryson among them, selling fake degrees worldwide from 2003 to 2012 and inventing his own fake accrediting body to back them up. He pleaded guilty in federal court in Philadelphia in 2014 to mail fraud and aiding and abetting mail fraud, admitting to about $5 million in sales and more than $700,000 in personal profit. No source consulted for this page reports an actual sentence, so his final punishment is not confirmed here.
- Year
- 2014
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Convicted
- Reported loss
- $5.0 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Diploma mill fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-31
The facts, as recorded
- James Enowitch, 48, of Cromwell, Connecticut, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Philadelphia on charges announced May 7, 2014, to mail fraud and aiding and abetting mail fraud.
- Between 2003 and 2012, Enowitch and an unnamed co-schemer sold fake degrees through at least seven websites, operating under the names Redding University, Suffield University, Glendale University, Greenwood University and Bryson University.
- The sites had no faculty, no coursework, no classes and no recognition from the US Department of Education; buyers paid $475 to $550 for a degree package ranging from associate to doctoral level, with a discount for buying multiple degrees.
- Enowitch invented a fake accrediting body, the 'National Distance Learning Accreditation Council,' to falsely claim his fictitious schools were nationally accredited.
- He fabricated detailed transcripts showing coursework never taken, and for an extra fee let buyers choose their own grades for the invented courses; he also ran a fake credential-verification service so an employer calling to check a buyer's degree would get a false confirmation.
- Prosecutors said the scheme generated about $5 million in sales and more than $700,000 in personal profit for Enowitch.
- He faced a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $250,000 fine, a $100 special assessment per count, and an order of forfeiture; one 2014 report said he had been ordered to forfeit more than $400,000 in profits, though this was reported ahead of any confirmed final sentencing.
- The investigation was led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, with the FBI, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
Why this case matters
This is the smallest and most straightforwardly domestic of the three diploma mills on this page, a single operator working from a Connecticut home rather than a company with hundreds of employees or a multinational cast of co-defendants, and it shows the same playbook works at a much smaller scale: one person, five fake “universities,” and $5 million over nine years.
A fake accreditor, and a fake verification desk
Enowitch did not just invent fake schools; he invented a fake watchdog for them, the “National Distance Learning Accreditation Council,” so that a skeptical buyer or employer checking for accreditation would find an answer that looked official. He went a step further than the other two cases on this page by also running a fake verification service: if an employer called to confirm a graduate’s degree, the call would be answered by Enowitch’s own operation, not an independent third party.
The caveat
Enowitch pleaded guilty, which is a conviction under federal law, not merely a charge; the “allegations” are his own admissions in a 2014 guilty plea, not an unproven accusation. But no source consulted for this page, including the government’s own press release and contemporary news coverage, reports what sentence he actually received. One 2014 news account mentioned a forfeiture of “more than $400,000,” but that figure is reported in the same breath as his pending sentencing date, not as a confirmed final judgment, so this page does not treat it as his sentence. Readers should treat his ultimate punishment as unconfirmed rather than assume either the statutory maximum or no punishment at all.
Sources
- Connecticut Man Admits Role in Multi-Million-Dollar Diploma Fraud Scheme. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations. Accessed 2026-10-31. Supports: Enowitch's age, the May 7, 2014 guilty plea announcement, the 2003-to-2012 operating period, the five fake university names, the fake National Distance Learning Accreditation Council, the $475-to-$550 per-degree pricing, the fabricated transcripts and fake verification service, the $5 million and $700,000 figures, the statutory maximum penalties, and the investigating agencies.
- Cromwell Man Pleads Guilty to Selling $5 Million in Fake Diplomas. NBC Connecticut. Accessed 2026-10-31. Supports: Enowitch's guilty plea, the seven fake-university websites and their domain names, the $5 million and $700,000 figures, the fake accreditor, the fabricated transcripts, and Enowitch's own 'no comment' when approached at his home.