Why Dr Dante is hiding in a yacht off the coast of Mexico

The most infamous diploma mill in recent years has been Columbia State University operating from an address in Metairie, Louisiana, until it was closed by the state's Attorney-General, Richard Ieyoub, last August. CSU ran an aggressive marketing campaign, advertising in respectable newspapers and magazines, including the Economist and the Guardian. It promised applicants degrees within 27 days and for as little as $1,695.

The three degrees of bachelor, master and doctor were available in "triple combo" for $3,695. Academic credits were offered for going to plays, watching television and internet discussion.

The campus allegedly illustrated in the glossy brochure is, in fact, Lyndhurst, a stately home in Tarrytown in upstate New York owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The president of CSU was named as Austen Henry Layard - a famous paleontologist who died more than 100 years ago. All the other names in the brochure were aliases of the founder of CSU, Ronald Pellar, also known as Douglas Ford, Herald Crenshaw and Edward Connelly. In the Fifties, Pellar worked as a television hypnotist and was known as "Dr Dante". He was once briefly married to Lana Turner.

CSU claimed Jonas Salk among its alumni until he protested. Former students protested too, and the FBI raided the university's "secret" real site in San Clemente, California, on July 6th last.

The FBI recovered $500,000, representing "just one week's income", according to Dr John Bear. On the same day, the Attorney-General of Louisiana took action to close CSU in his state - the university was closed by a Louisiana court order in early August.

Pellar had already been sentenced to 67 months in federal prison last February for fraud involving a previous fake school which ran workshops claiming to teach participants how to apply "permanent makeup", a type of cosmetic tattoo. But he escaped, and Bear believes he is now a fugitive, living on a yacht off the Baja coast of Mexico.