"Alan Ezell, a 30-year FBI veteran who is now a corporate security manager for Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., led the bureau’s Dipscam task force, which investigated diploma mills between 1980 and 1991. Ezell’s task force bought 40 degrees, shut down 40 businesses claiming to be schools, executed 16 federal search warrants and won 19 federal grand jury indictments leading to 21 convictions, according to a presentation he gives to university administrators and federal personnel officials. The task force secured convictions for mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy, he said. It ceased operation when Ezell retired. In his current work, he advises organizations on how to spot diploma mill abuses and said he has briefed OPM officials on how to recognize bogus credentials." -- http://www.gcn.com/22_15/workforce/22414-1.html "These changes will come with an aggressive advertising campaign, starting with a series of tongue-in-cheek spots in which the First Union logo will morph into the Wachovia logo as the ad content tells people how to pronounce the new name: Wa-ko-vee-ah: 'An uncommon name, an uncommon approach to banking.' On one hand, these spots will help build brand recognition. At the same time, observers say, the spots could help the bank avoid potential problems with an unfamiliar name that could easily be mispronounced as either Watch-Over-You or Walk-Over-You. This later pronunciation in particular might be a concern for a bank that once raised local eyebrows by touting its asset strength with the tagline, 'Come to the Mountain' -- perceived by many as a kind of muscle-flexing inappropriate in a service industry." -- http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2003/07/21/focus3.html?page=2
