Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Higher Education is investigating whether people have used fake degrees purchased from an illegal diploma mill in the United States to obtain work in the Middle Eastern country.

The U.S. Department of Justice shut down the illegal operation in 2005, and earlier this year the diploma mill’s operators pleaded guilty to fraud. They were subsequently sentenced to prison terms for their roles in the scam, which took in $7.3-million from some 10,000 people. It was only last month that a list of those people was published by the local newspaper in Spokane, Wash., where the diploma mill was based.

The Arab News reported that Saudi authorities opened an investigation after 69 Saudi residents were among those listed by the Spokane newspaper.

A member of the Saudi Shura Council, a legislative body, criticized Saudi newspapers for having published advertisements for the illegitimate operation in the first place. The official, Abdullah Al-Tuwairqi, urged government officials to extend the investigation to newspapers that publish such ads without first conducting background checks on the institutions, the Arab News reported.

Similar questions are being asked in other Arab countries, as people in Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Sudan, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates were also listed as purchasers of the bogus certificates.

In Bahrain, the Gulf Daily News reported that the Higher Education Council, which is responsible for verifying foreign degrees, had not encountered any of the 10 Bahrainis who appear on the list of purchasers. —Andrew Mills