The Minneapolis
City Pages features an expose on one of the US
essay mills -
Kavoosi is in the business of plagiarism. For $23 per page, one of his employees will write an essay. Just name the topic and he'll get it done in 48 hours. He'll even guarantee at least a "B" grade or your money back. According to his website, he's the best essay writer in the world.
Kavoosi's business, Essay Writing Company, employs writers from across the country. Most of the customers are high school or college students, but not all. In one case, an author asked Kavoosi's crew to write a book to be published in his own name. ...
Kavoosi doesn't apologize for his work. On the contrary, he openly advertises it online and with large signs outside his Apple Valley office. Just last week, he and a couple of employees painted their bare chests and paraded around the suburb's streets to attract attention.
The expose goes on to claim that -
But all may not be as it seems when it comes to Kavoosi. The description on one of his many websites says the business has been "providing high quality essay writing" since 1998. It's actually less than two years old, and Kavoosi was only 12 years old in 1998.
An online listing for Dramatic Smiles Teeth Whitening — which Kavoosi says is a friend's company—advertises a "Dr. Jordan Kavoosi" who claims to practice dentistry in Austin, Texas. Kavoosi's cell phone number is listed at the bottom of the page, though he's not a doctor of anything.
No one is immune to Kavoosi's charm. At one point, Kavoosi even offered a cut of the profits to include his company's phone number and give this article a positive spin.
"We'll give you like 20 percent—15, 20 percent—commission per sale," Kavoosi offered. "So, ya know, if you write something like really good, positive, it gives you a little incentive."
The young entrepreneur has a lot to hide. A quick internet search of Kavoosi's name yields dozens of complaints from former writers accusing him of failing to pay the money he owes.
"The man, he is amoral," says Deborah Morse-Kahn, a former writer for Kavoosi. "He seemingly has no boundaries. Everything is a personal insult to him."
Unabashed, Kavoosi reportedly boasts that "I want to be like a big LA Fitness, where people can just come in here, play video games, get their homework done. Ya know? That's like everyone's dream."
At first, he charged $80 for a 10-page paper, he says, and outsourced the work to writers in India. But now the company has more than 20 full-time writers on the payroll and dozens more part-timers. He presides over an empire of plagiarism. ...
Upon request, Kavoosi pulls up a spreadsheet of the company's profits. In May, the enterprise made more than $21,000, the records show. In April, the plagiarism business hauled in $43,000.
"Wow, what?" Kavoosi says, leaning in toward the computer screen and squinting to read the numbers, surprised by the magnitude of his own success. "We did $43,000 in a month? What the heck? Where did all that money go?"
For Kavoosi, the future always looks bright. Next he's looking at renting space in the Burnsville Mall, where he hopes to attract more foot traffic. From there, he hopes to continue to grow the company, possibly franchising to other mall locations. He envisions a day when he has hundreds of writers on the payroll, churning out reams of plagiarized papers for the nation's callow youth.
"I only went to college for a year," he says, flashing a satisfied grin. "And everyone working for me has a four-year degree."
City Pages highlights 'plagiarism ethics' by noting claims that Kavoosi has mistreated his writers, for example allegations by Morse-Kahn -
One night, while scanning Craigslist for work, she came across an advertisement for Kavoosi's company and took a chance.
Kavoosi gave her an assignment and paid promptly within two days of completion. The money wasn't much, but it was enough to keep the lights on.
"There was a series of days in the first few weeks where I was working from seven in the morning to 11 o'clock at night," recalls Morse-Kahn.
Then one day, Morse-Kahn didn't receive her paycheck on time. When she contacted Kavoosi, he tried to bargain her down.
Payments became more infrequent. After one assignment, Kavoosi claimed that the student had gotten an F, so he wasn't going to pay. Morse-Kahn later received an email from the student thanking her for a job well done.
"You wrote an outstanding paper for me and you shared that you were not paid!" reads the email. "I really can't go on with my daily life knowing that!"
After the pattern of late or no payments continued, Morse-Kahn decided to cut her losses and look for work elsewhere. But Morse-Kahn wanted to ensure others didn't make her mistake. So she posted complaints on online message boards accusing Kavoosi's company of a being a con. Thanks to her, "Jordan Kavoosi Essay writing companies SCAM Complaints" is the first listing that appears under his name on Google.
When Kavoosi started losing writers due to the bad publicity, Morse-Kahn suddenly had his attention. First he tried to offer her money to replace the complaints with similar postings about his competitors.
"I have an idea," an email from Kavoosi reads, "ill pay you 80.00 to take off all the posting you posted on the internet about my company and me and stop harassing my writers, and then pay you 80.00 to post listings about some companies I don't like what you think about that? Will call you as well tomorrow to rap this issue up as well."
Morse-Kahn declined the offer. If she didn't want the carrot, Kavoosi would give her the stick. Under a pseudonym, someone from the essay-writing company posted messages disparaging her on the same online complaint boards. In one post, she was called an alcoholic. In another, the anonymous person accused her of molesting his child. Kavoosi says the postings were made by one of his "buddies," and not him.
Morse-Kahn says that's when Kavoosi started calling her late at night and threatening her.
"It's an awful way to wake up, to have this slurred voice in your ear," says Morse-Kahn. "He said 'We're gonna take you out. I'm gonna be there in 20 minutes.'"
Kavoosi denies making any threatening calls.
"She posted all that stuff - it's all lies," he says, adding that she only worked for him for three days, not for several weeks as she claims. "She needs to get a life."
He admits to eventually offering Morse-Kahn money to take down the posts and calling her late at night.
"I called her a couple times, sure," Kavoosi concedes. "I mean we're always up, that's just the type of business we're in ... there's nothing wrong with two humans meeting up."
