A 44-year-old woman pleaded guilty on Thursday, November 23 to charges of cheating and forgery after using a forged Nanyang Technological University (NTU) engineering degree to secure employment at four prestigious companies.
Fonseka Wannerichega Hema Ranjini, who dropped out of NTU’s mechanical and production engineering program in 2004, confessed to producing a fake Bachelor of Engineering degree with third-class honors on cardstock paper in 2005.
She successfully deceived hiring managers at Marshall Cavendish Education where she was hired as an assistant managing editor and was even promoted to Managing Editor at Scholastic Education International (Singapore). Included in her list of defrauded companies are The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia), Cengage Learning Asia, and Oxygen Studio Designs.
During her deceitful tenure, Ms. Fonseka earned monthly salaries ranging from S$4,300 (AED 15K/ Php 238k) to S$6,800 (AED24K/Php 376).
The Walt Disney Company uncovered the forgery when they sought to validate her certificate through a third-party vendor specializing in background checks.
NTU confirmed that they had not issued the certificate, leading to Ms. Fonseka’s resignation in December 2021. The companies involved, including The Walt Disney Company, expressed that they would not have hired her if they had known about her lack of qualifications.
Ms. Fonseka is set to appear in court for mitigation and sentencing in December. Each count of cheating in Singapore carries a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both, while forgery could result in a fine and up to seven years’ imprisonment.
