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Medgar Evers College Professor Still Getting Paid After Fraud Arrest

 A professor at Medgar Evers College was arrested Friday for selling fraudulent certificates from the college. Pictured: A community board holds a meeting at an auditorium in the CUNY college in Crown Heights.
A professor at Medgar Evers College was arrested Friday for selling fraudulent certificates from the college. Pictured: A community board holds a meeting at an auditorium in the CUNY college in Crown Heights.
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DNAinfo/Rachel Holliday Smith

CROWN HEIGHTS — A tenured Medgar Evers College professor accused of selling sham health care certificates to students for years is still being paid after being pulled from teaching at the Crown Heights school, the college said Monday.

Mamdouh Abdel-Sayed, 68, a lecturer in the college’s Biology Department, was charged Friday with fraud, corruption and obstruction offenses in Manhattan federal court for his four-year scam in which he taught unauthorized health care courses on the college grounds, then billed students up to $1,000 for fraudulent certificates he made himself, prosecutors said.

Following his arrest, college officials placed Abdel-Sayed on “paid administrative leave,” Medgar Evers College spokeswoman Felicia Lee said.

“He is no longer teaching,” she said.

Abdel-Sayed earned $69,254 as a lecturer at the CUNY school in 2016, according to the website SeeThroughNY.

It’s unclear how much he will be paid while he faces the fraud charges; Lee did not answer questions about his salary.

Abdel-Sayed was caught by an undercover investigator who posed as a student and bought several of the unauthorized certificates. He also asked the undercover investigator to hide the certificates from federal agents, who he was aware were looking into the scheme, according to prosecutors.

“This defendant ignored repeated warnings and allegedly still brazenly abused the name and resources of his college employer to operate what amounted to his own fraudulent trade school on the grounds of the City University of New York,” said New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott.

Abdel-Sayed’s attorney, Ryan Blanch, declined to comment on the case.

CUNY spokesman Frank Sobrino said in a statement the university had “promptly” referred the fraud to the state inspector general when told about the scheme by Medgar Evers College.

“Medgar Evers College and CUNY have cooperated fully throughout this investigation and we will continue to work with both offices as requested.  We have no tolerance for anyone attempting to take advantage of our students,” he said.

Abdel-Sayed faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.