01-03-2014, 06:43 PM
Doctors, med students could lose their licenses for using N.J. test prep firm that
stole exam questions.
Hundreds of doctors and medical students who used a New Jersey test-preparation company were given stolen exam questions, leading to their scores being challenged and the possible loss of their medical licenses, officials said.
Egija Kuka, 38, and her ex-husband, Eihab Suliman, 48, were indicted earlier this month on fraud charges after Kuka allegedly used a digital device to lift questions from a version of the United States Medical Licensing Exam given in Italy. It was not clear why Kuka allegedly took the test in Europe.
The couple then gave the copyrighted questions to students at Optima University, their test-prep business with centers in Totowa and Tennessee, prosecutors said.
"By allegedly stealing the questions for a business advantage, the defendants made it possible for their customers to pass the boards without the minimal knowledge and skills for safe and effective practice," said Paul Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey who announced the indictment.
The ex-spouses, whose last known address was in Elizabeth, remain at large, prosecutors said. They were indicted on six counts each of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Upon capture and conviction, they could each face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The National Board of Medical Examiners first grew suspicious of Optima University’s owners in 2008 because Kuka took the test several times and scored poorly each time, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The board has spent the past few years reviewing the licensing exams of doctors and aspiring doctors who took test-prep classes through the firm. Hundreds of doctors in the U.S. received letters questioning their scores on the three-part examination.
Students were asked to defend their scores through an appeal or retest — without having to pay the $780 fee per section a second time. Several failed, said Luise Markowitz, a spokeswoman for the board. Those who fail the retest could lose their state-issued medical licenses.
"We want to be confident that anyone that passes the test has all the information required to be a good, safe doctor," she said. "A secure medical licensing exam is absolutely essential to public safety ... The public must know their physicians have passed it honestly."
The exam is offered across the country and around the world, board officials said.
Kuka and Suliman’s lawyer, Kalman Geist of Woodland Park, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The Totowa center is now a gym, and a call to the number listed on its incorporation papers went to an unrelated voicemail. Suliman’s phone in Elizabeth has been disconnected, and Kuka does not have a phone listing. A call to Optima’s Tennessee location was answered by a food-packaging company. In addition, Optima’s website is defunct.
An online posting by a disgruntled student said the Optima course cost $5,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said a surveillance camera at a testing center in Milan, Italy, in 2008 caught Kuka using a small digital device to record images from a computer monitor where she was taking the exam. She had fabricated a degree from a university in Romania to register for the exam, investigators said. That April, the FBI raided the center’s Totowa offices and allegedly found stolen questions on computers used for instruction.
Under U.S. copyright law, test-preparation companies have no right to use test items, investigators said.
Optima University illegally provided the questions to students to inflate test results and boost enrollment and tuition, said Michael Ward, an FBI agent involved in the investigation.
It is unclear if Optima University students knew the questions allegedly were stolen, investigators said.
"The owners are the only ones we are prosecuting at this point," said Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
Though no students have been implicated at this point, some have paid dearly in the alleged scam.
Bob Bennett, a Texas-based lawyer, said he advised about 30 Optima students and represented about half of them during their appeals to the board. He said most of the test prep company’s students — including some U.S. citizens — had graduated from foreign medical schools and turned to Optima to help them pass the U.S. licensing exam.
"Some were completely in the dark as to what was going on. Others, I’m not so sure," Bennett said. "Some had taken the test three or four times and failed, and suddenly, under Optima, they passed."
Bennett said he spoke to Suliman about a year ago.
"His position was that the material he had was not copyrighted and the students should get together and sue the board," Bennett said.
He said Optima’s review program catered to those unfamiliar with the U.S. testing system and to those who had been unsuccessful in the past. It promised students they would pass the exam and pledged to let them retake the course for free if they failed.
"Optima definitely played on the hopes and fears of lots of students. For some, this was the last chance to get into the medical profession," Bennett said. "This kind of pulled the rug from under them. But we are talking about people who end up in the operating room. There should be some rigor."
stole exam questions.
Hundreds of doctors and medical students who used a New Jersey test-preparation company were given stolen exam questions, leading to their scores being challenged and the possible loss of their medical licenses, officials said.
Egija Kuka, 38, and her ex-husband, Eihab Suliman, 48, were indicted earlier this month on fraud charges after Kuka allegedly used a digital device to lift questions from a version of the United States Medical Licensing Exam given in Italy. It was not clear why Kuka allegedly took the test in Europe.
The couple then gave the copyrighted questions to students at Optima University, their test-prep business with centers in Totowa and Tennessee, prosecutors said.
"By allegedly stealing the questions for a business advantage, the defendants made it possible for their customers to pass the boards without the minimal knowledge and skills for safe and effective practice," said Paul Fishman, the U.S. attorney for New Jersey who announced the indictment.
The ex-spouses, whose last known address was in Elizabeth, remain at large, prosecutors said. They were indicted on six counts each of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Upon capture and conviction, they could each face up to 20 years in prison on each count.
The National Board of Medical Examiners first grew suspicious of Optima University’s owners in 2008 because Kuka took the test several times and scored poorly each time, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The board has spent the past few years reviewing the licensing exams of doctors and aspiring doctors who took test-prep classes through the firm. Hundreds of doctors in the U.S. received letters questioning their scores on the three-part examination.
Students were asked to defend their scores through an appeal or retest — without having to pay the $780 fee per section a second time. Several failed, said Luise Markowitz, a spokeswoman for the board. Those who fail the retest could lose their state-issued medical licenses.
"We want to be confident that anyone that passes the test has all the information required to be a good, safe doctor," she said. "A secure medical licensing exam is absolutely essential to public safety ... The public must know their physicians have passed it honestly."
The exam is offered across the country and around the world, board officials said.
Kuka and Suliman’s lawyer, Kalman Geist of Woodland Park, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
The Totowa center is now a gym, and a call to the number listed on its incorporation papers went to an unrelated voicemail. Suliman’s phone in Elizabeth has been disconnected, and Kuka does not have a phone listing. A call to Optima’s Tennessee location was answered by a food-packaging company. In addition, Optima’s website is defunct.
An online posting by a disgruntled student said the Optima course cost $5,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said a surveillance camera at a testing center in Milan, Italy, in 2008 caught Kuka using a small digital device to record images from a computer monitor where she was taking the exam. She had fabricated a degree from a university in Romania to register for the exam, investigators said. That April, the FBI raided the center’s Totowa offices and allegedly found stolen questions on computers used for instruction.
Under U.S. copyright law, test-preparation companies have no right to use test items, investigators said.
Optima University illegally provided the questions to students to inflate test results and boost enrollment and tuition, said Michael Ward, an FBI agent involved in the investigation.
It is unclear if Optima University students knew the questions allegedly were stolen, investigators said.
"The owners are the only ones we are prosecuting at this point," said Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
Though no students have been implicated at this point, some have paid dearly in the alleged scam.
Bob Bennett, a Texas-based lawyer, said he advised about 30 Optima students and represented about half of them during their appeals to the board. He said most of the test prep company’s students — including some U.S. citizens — had graduated from foreign medical schools and turned to Optima to help them pass the U.S. licensing exam.
"Some were completely in the dark as to what was going on. Others, I’m not so sure," Bennett said. "Some had taken the test three or four times and failed, and suddenly, under Optima, they passed."
Bennett said he spoke to Suliman about a year ago.
"His position was that the material he had was not copyrighted and the students should get together and sue the board," Bennett said.
He said Optima’s review program catered to those unfamiliar with the U.S. testing system and to those who had been unsuccessful in the past. It promised students they would pass the exam and pledged to let them retake the course for free if they failed.
"Optima definitely played on the hopes and fears of lots of students. For some, this was the last chance to get into the medical profession," Bennett said. "This kind of pulled the rug from under them. But we are talking about people who end up in the operating room. There should be some rigor."
