(MCT) CHICAGO—The network of bogus universities was a family-run venture based in rural Washington state, but the criminal enterprise spanned the globe, with operators allegedly paying bribes to Liberian officials and selling fake Ph.D.s and M.D.s as far away as Iran.

They were arrested by state and federal officials with the help of a physics professor.

George Gollin, professor of physics and Fermilab physicist at Illinois, helped unravel the scheme that has resulted in eight guilty pleas this year.

The investigation could spark further charges against hundreds of people who may have bought and used bogus diplomas.

Dubbed “Operation Gold Seal” by federal investigators, the case exploded into the national news with the publication of the names of some 9,600 possible buyers of junk degrees from the phony “St. Regis University” and at least 120 affiliated institutions operated by Dixie and Steven K. Randock Sr.

Claims to advanced degrees from diploma mills and other unaccredited schools are burgeoning, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year as state and federal employees use phony credentials to bump up their salaries, Gollin said.

In the Colbert, Wash.-based scam, buyers included people with U.S. government e-mail addresses and one man who reportedly worked in a Wisconsin nuclear power plant control room.

The customers were based in 131 countries, and at least 140 of them reported Illinois addresses, federal investigators stated.

The scheme generated $7.3 million for the owners by selling degrees from both phony institutions and unsuspecting real universities including Chicago Technical College and the University of Illinois-Chicago.

The list of possible buyers, first published in the Spokane Spokesman-Review and also obtained by the Chicago Tribune, includes names of people who may have inquired about the degrees but had not actually bought them, federal officials said.

In any case, officials are marveling at the strange twists in a scheme worthy of a Graham Greene novel.

“It should be a movie,” said Jack Zurlini, a Washington assistant attorney general.

“I mean, this one guy went to Liberia to bribe officials. Holy cow! You take your life in your hands to go there in the first place, and you’re carrying sacks of money, and you’re asking them to do these illegal things. And they did! It’s just amazing.”

© 2008 McClatchy-Tribune News