There Was Reportedly A Fake Student Hanging Out At Columbia Law School Parties
The fake student - who went by "Jose Olivo" - was reportedly part of the new law class' Facebook group and was at every social event, although never seen in class. As one tipster tells ATL, "We met Jose when he frequented Columbia events at bars, house parties and whatnot at the beginning of the semester, and it appears he represented himself to be a 1L at all times, per discussions, Facebook posts, or anything else."
The likely con went deeper than just hanging out at some Columbia parties, though. According to another tipster, Olivo had a now-removed Facebook profile "littered with statuses and photos of five-star restaurants, courtside Knicks seats, routine encounters with celebrities, open discussions of casually spending thousands on entertainment, and the like."
However, the tipster tells ATL, "Several students have suggested he tends to appear very infrequently in the photos (suggesting that they might not be his) or that some or many may be Photoshopped."
The "student" also claimed to have attended high school at New York City prep school Horace Mann and graduated from Columbia in the Class of 2013. A Columbia dean confirmed that they did not have records of any student named "Jose Olivo" and - as an HM grad who attended the school when Olivo would have been there - I can safely say there was no one by that name in our class, or any of the surrounding ones.
A Columbia spokesperson confirmed to ATL that the school is investigating the situation: