Moshe Porat, ousted Temple business dean, faces fraud trial in college rankings scandal
In the three years since it acknowledged that its No. 1-ranked online MBA program achieved that status on the back of phony data, Temple University has paid out millions in legal settlements to former students and government monitors while implementing reforms to put that embarrassing chapter behind it.
But as the former dean at the heart of the scandal faces trial this week on federal fraud charges, the university’s Fox School of Business is bracing once again for one of its darkest moments to be pushed back into the spotlight.
As many as eight current Temple employees could be among those testifying for the prosecution in its case against Moshe Porat, once viewed before his 2018 ouster as one of the university’s most valuable administrators and a rainmaker adept at luring tuition and donor dollars. Porat maintains that he’s been unfairly scapegoated and blames the rankings misrepresentations on his former subordinates.
