ROME – Bosnian police have issued an arrest warrant for an Italian man who allegedly oversaw the issuing of fake medical degrees from a made-up university in Bosnia-Herzegovina, police said.

 Salvatore Messina, from Marsala in Sicily, is at the centre of an international manhunt after journalistic investigations published in Repubblica's Palermo edition and long police inquiries revealed that the international university in Gorazde, Bosnia was a “ghost” university – it didn’t really exist. The university had been issuing fake medical degrees which were in use throughout Europe, in countries including Italy, Switzerland and Croatia.

 The Italian was head of the "Jean Monnet Technical and Scientific Department of European Studies" which allegedly operated in agreement with the university in Gorazde and was linked to the department in Palermo. He had previously been a professor of international economic policy at Palermo and had collaborated with various other universities including the Sorbonne in Paris and George Town in the USA.

 Messina is also wanted by Italian authorities for issuing fake degrees to Italians and for defrauding the EU. The university received funding from the EU for training courses which never took place. Messina is currently untraceable.

 Hundreds of students were enrolled at the university, paying fees of up to 20,000 euros a year. Their money was deposited into various European companies, including one based in London. More than 50 of them are planning on filing a class action in front of a London court, aimed at receiving compensation for damages including attending courses with no legal value and paying thousands of euros for not recognised degrees.

 The university had been under investigation for a long time. The Italian Ministry of Universities had previously issued a warning on Feb. 22, 2023, saying they were thinking of reporting the university for suspicious activity. On March 13, 2024, Minister Anna Maria Bernini announced that the Ministry of Universities had never authorised the University of Gorazde or the Jean Monnet Department of European Studies in Palermo to award academic degrees.

 Goradze’s university also was not recognised as an accredited university by Bosnian authorities.

 khg