I SURE WISH THEY'D DIG INTO OBAMA'S RECORDS HALF AS HARD AS THEY DUG INTO ADAM WHEELER'S

ADAM WHEELER - AS I WHEELER DEALER: Ex-Harvard student accused of living a lie

He crafted an elaborate web of lies to con his way into Harvard University, authorities say, but Adam B. Wheeler wasn’t content to graduate quietly and get away with just a degree.

After two years of blending into campus life and racking up academic prizes and tens of thousands of dollars in grants and scholarships, Wheeler allegedly upped the ante: The 23-year-old senior applied for the prestigious Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships last fall using falsified credentials, including a fake transcript and work he plagiarized from a Harvard professor, said investigators.

Wheeler was indicted yesterday on charges of larceny and identity fraud, among other charges. If proven, the charges — he is also accused of falsely claiming to have attended MIT and Phillips Academy and coauthored several books — suggest a student on a fraudulent quest for advancement at all costs, and raise questions about how he nearly got away with it.

“This defendant seriously undermined the integrity of the competitive admissions process, compromised the reputation of some of the finest educators and educational institutions in the country, and cheated those who competed honestly for what he fraudulently received,’’ Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said in a statement.

Leone also highlighted what he said was the financial toll from Wheeler’s alleged deeds: more than $45,000 in grants, scholarship, and financial aid money awarded to him “based on lies and reproductions of other people’s hard work.’’

Calls to Wheeler’s Milton, Del., home were not returned yesterday. Attempts to reach his lawyer were not successful. ...

... Those who knew Wheeler at Harvard describe him as personable, if a bit of a loner.

“I was just knocked silly by this,’’ said one Harvard professor, speaking on condition of anonymity, who likened Wheeler’s fabrications to a scenario from the film “The Talented Mr. Ripley.’’ “There’s something that’s pathological there. And it’s something that seems to me that needs care and clinical treatment, rather than incarceration.’’

After his dismissal from Harvard in October, Wheeler did not sit idly. Three months later, he applied for an internship at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School’s psychiatric hospital. The hospital concluded that Wheeler had fabricated his background, prosecutors said.

In the meantime, Wheeler once again submitted transfer applications — this time to Yale and Brown universities. In his applications, Wheeler said he was interning at McLean and included two false letters of recommendation, the documents show.

Wheeler is being held by Cambridge police pending his arraignment this morning at Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn. He is charged with four counts of larceny over $250, eight counts of identity fraud, seven counts of falsifying an endorsement or approval, and pretending to hold a degree.

IT'S A GREAT LONG PIECE. RTWT.

• OBAMA'S ACADEMIC RECORDS FROM OCCIDENTAL, COLUMBIA AND HARVARD HAVE NEVER BEEN RELEASED. I THINK IT'S ABOUT THEY WERE RELEASED.

• AND HIS LEGAL FILES, TOO.

• AND THE TERMS OF HIS LEGAL SETTLEMENT WITH JANE DYSTEL.

BTW: DIDN'T KAGAN GO TO HARVARD, TOO?

HMMM....