The investigation into fake university degrees in Paraguay has reached high-ranking public officials, with the Public Prosecutor's Office identifying the first 21 state employees suspected of possessing fraudulent diplomas. The list includes professionals from the Social Security Institute (IPS), the Ministry of Public Health, and the Supreme Court of Justice, as well as public school teachers.
The Ministry of Education and Sciences (MEC) has already referred over 300 cases of suspicious documents to the Public Prosecutor's Office for criminal investigation. In parallel, 283 employees of the MEC itself are facing internal administrative proceedings, a number that the minister, Luis Ramírez, described as a "record."
The scandal took on an international dimension with the investigation into the Inter-American Institute of Social Sciences (ISICS). Prosecutor Aldo Cantero charged Brazilian businessman Ismael Fenner with alleged fraud and the production of non-authentic documents. The action took place after an intervention at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Asunción, where a postgraduate course for more than 100 Brazilian students was interrupted due to a lack of authorization from the MEC and the National Council of Higher Education (Cones).
Brazilian authorities are also monitoring the case, as the institution operated in Brazil as the Inter-American Faculty of Social Sciences (FICS). The Federal Police of Brazil has already questioned a university about the recognition of degrees issued by ISICS, which lacked official registration in Paraguay. Reports indicate that approximately 915 master's and doctoral degrees from the entity were registered on the Carolina Bori Platform, a Brazilian system for the recognition of studies abroad, with more than a hundred already having been annulled.