James Kirk diploma mills

Thomas James Kirk II (also known as Thomas McPherson) operated several fraudulent higher education organizations (diploma mills), including LaSalle University in Mandeville, Louisiana (not associated with the Lasallian educational institutions), the University of San Gabriel Valley, and Bienville University. Kirk's "LaSalle University" was shut down in 1996 following a raid by the FBI. Kirk was indicted for fraud in 1996 and, after a plea agreement, was sentenced to five years in U.S. federal prison.

The University of San Gabriel Valley was a correspondence law school based in California. At the time, California's regulations allowed for authorization of a degree program if the prospective operator provided a list of faculty and courses and demonstrated $50,000 in assets, and Southland met California's requirements. In 1984 Time reported that a former Southland registrar said that the school had granted a bachelor's degree in engineering based on the student's short résumé and had awarded a law degree to a real estate agent on the basis of an exam designed to test legal assistants. Time quoted Kirk, who claimed he no longer operated Southland, as saying he "had no interest as an educator," but the school "was a good way to make money."

Renamed LaSalle University, Kirk later moved it to Mandeville, Louisiana. According to John Bear, a renowned authority on diploma mills who consulted for the FBI, Kirk set up "World Christian Church" in Louisiana, placed the university in the ownership of the "church" to claim religious exemption from state education laws, and claimed to have taken a vow of poverty.

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