The beginning of the end started when I got an email while I was in Florida with my family visiting my dad over Spring Break. The email was from someone in Penn State’s graduate school office and said they wanted me to look at some documents Balaji had submitted containing what appeared to be a forgery of my signature. When they sent me the papers, it was clear that I had not signed them, and as time had passed, the imitation had gotten worse and worse. The issue was that these were I-20 forms that allowed international students to renew their visas to remain in the country. They essentially attest that the student has financial support and is progressing toward a degree. For a graduate student who a professor is supporting as a research assistant, these forms are just a formality, and I would have indeed signed them had Balaji asked. The forms contained no misleading information, but they are federal documents, and forging a signature on them is a felony offense.
When I returned to State College, I learned of the strange circumstances that had led to the discovery of these forgeries. The Penn State library had a program where students could sign out laptops for a certain period. I’m not sure of the details, but Balaji had gotten one of these laptops and then reported it stolen. When the campus police interviewed him, he said the laptop had been stolen from my lab when he’d left the door unlocked to go somewhere. He then called the investigating officer back and changed his story, saying that he’d locked the door. The officer then started to wonder if Balaji was being honest. Talking with Balaji more made him even more suspicious, so he called the graduate school to learn more about him. The graduate school office staff then noticed the signature on his I-20’s allegedly being from the same person but changing dramatically from semester to semester.
I have no idea what was happening with the laptop, but a “good samaritan” returned it the following week. I suspect that either Balaji had broken it or planned to sell it. My initial assumption was that he’d likely left it somewhere, and someone had taken it. The laptop, however, was the least of Balaji’s problems at this point.
Because the I-20 is a federal form, and being 2009, the FBI got involved. An agent came to my office and interviewed me about Balaji. They were worried about him planning some terrorist attack, but I highly doubted that was the case and suggested they interview him and let him talk. Balaji’s problem was the same one that is often the cause of getting caught; he thought he was far more intelligent than he was. Over the few years of interacting with him, I discovered that he would eventually contradict himself if you kept asking him simple questions. In my experience with him, these were never huge lies or anything that mattered much, but I learned not to believe anything he said.
Not long after the FBI contacted me about Balaji, a reporter from the Daily Collegian, Penn State’s student newspaper, contacted me for an interview. Unbeknownst to me, Balaji had been the university’s graduate student association (GSA) president, and the newspaper had learned law enforcement was charging him with forgery. The article they wrote about the situation is still online, and another article with a picture–I’d bet he got that t-shirt free–can be found here. I was utterly dumbfounded when I learned he’d been the GSA president. I later asked another student how he won the election. Balaji was a regular at the meetings because there was always free food. When the president’s office was open, Balaji was the only person who wanted the job. I wonder how much money he oversaw and if there were good checks and balances with the GSA budget. While I have no idea if he embezzled anything–although it wouldn’t surprise me–I’m sure the amount of free food at the meeting increased under his watch.
I’m not sure what happened when the FBI finally contacted him, but my understanding was that he spent time in a federal prison before being deported. Penn State, at some point, expelled him.
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