CONTROVERSIAL figure Dennis Adonis has once again found himself in proverbial hot water: the Texila American University is threatening to sue him for $500M after he published a “defamatory” article about that university.The Guyana Guardian online news site, of which Adonis is identified as the Editor-in-Chief, published the article under the headline “US Dept of Education says medical degrees issued by Texila American University are not recognised.”

According to the article, written by Andrea Fernandes on Sunday last, the US Department of Education was quick to point out that “Texila American University is more than likely a Degree Mill (an institution that issues bogus degrees), and (is) among the list of international so-called universities that are blacklisted” by the Dept.

This information could, however, not be found on the US Department of Education’s website when checked by this publication.

The article further stated that Texila’s claim of being accredited by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM-HP) is untrue.

“In a communication exchange with the Guyana Guardian, Mrs. Lorna M. Parkins, the Executive Director at the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions (CAAM-HP), revealed that Texila’s claims were not legitimate,” the article reportedly said.

But according to Texila’s Vice President of International Operation, Ashok Kumar, no claim of the university being accredited by that body was ever made. If fact, he explained, the university is in the process of submitting its application to CAAM-HP -– a claim supported by evidence from the CAAM-HP website.

And with Texila having Nigerian students enrolled, the Guyana Guardian article alleges, “The Nigerian Government, through the Federal Ministry of Health, had told the Guyana Guardian last week that they were misled into believing that the ‘university’ was accredited.”

It stated that the Nigerian Government made this discovery after almost all of the returning students who went to Texila were failing the required local exams for clinical admittance into their country’s healthcare system.

“The Nigerian officials and many of the affected students have also laid blame at Guyana’s National Accreditation Council (NAC), for ‘misleading’ them into believing that degrees issued by Texila American University are duly recognised”, the article stated.

The article further added that several students accused the NAC of either taking bribery or some other form of appeasement from Texila to allow the institution to take thousands of US dollars from them for a useless medical degree.

This was again rejected by Texila, whose Vice Chancellor, Dr. A. Anand, said the university had received three to four visits from the NAC, and its operations and facilities were examined before it was registered.

Dr. Anand also pointed out that the article falsely stated that the institution does not have any agreement with local hospitals.

“We have an agreement with the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation… Not only with GPHC, we also have an agreement with New Amsterdam Hospital, which is also an approved hospital by the Medical Council of Guyana,” the Vice Chancellor said.

Against the backdrop of these accusations and other “derogatory and defamatory” statements made in the article, Dr. Anand said, Adonis will be sued for $500M, since this episode has brought much distress to the students of Texila and to their parents.

Attempts by this publication to solicit a comment from the Guyana Guardian’s Editor-in-Chief proved futile.

Adonis is no stranger to controversy. In 2010, he was charged with fraudulently converting $542,000 to his personal use after he had been entrusted with the money to purchase 100 modems.

Adonis had also collected money from the wider public a few years ago under the pretext that he was bringing professional wrestlers from the US to Guyana. That scheme collapsed after it was exposed by the media.

Other scams included the promised provision of a wireless communication service, the Royal Antigua money transfer service, which collected people’s money from overseas but failed to deliver in Guyana; and there were numerous so-called training schemes.

He had also claimed to be an internationally recognised journalist who contributes to the popular Huffington Post, Yahoo and CNN. The “international journalist” boasted of being among the first wave of journalists on the ground in Liberia during the Ebola Crisis, and on the front-lines in Crimea during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

He also claims to have authored 20 published books in at least five different languages.