Founded in 1852 MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor

by Sidney Davy Miller Detroit Grand Rapids

Kalamazoo Lansing Troy
FLORIDA:
Tampa
ILLINOIS:
Chicago
NEW YORK: New York

TODD A. HOLLEMAN Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. CANADA: Windsor
TEL (313) 496-7668 150 West Jefferson, Suite 2500 CHINA: Shanghai
FAX (313) 496-8453 Detroit, Michigan 48226 MEXICO: Monterrey
E-MAIL holleman@millercanfield.com
TEL (313) 963-6420 POLAND: Gdynia
FAX (313) 496-7500 Warsaw Wrocaw
www.millercanfield.com

September 7, 2017

Via Electronic Mail (Eric.Szeto@cbc.ca)

Mr. Eric Szeto

CBC Radio-Canada

Re: Axact (Pvt.) Ltd and Mr. Shoiab Shaikh

Dear Mr. Szeto:

Thank you for your letter dated August 30, 2017 to Mr. Shoiab Shaikh of Axact (Pvt.)
Ltd. (Axact). As you know, I represent Axact as its legal counsel in the United States, and I
have been asked to respond to your letter on behalf of Mr. Shaikh and Axact. Axact, Mr. Shaikh
and I decline your offer to appear in an on-camera interview, but we appreciate the opportunity
to provide a written response to you.

Axact is an information technology company that offers its development and support
services to individuals, institutions and companies around the world, and those services cover
numerous different areas and industries, only one of those being education. Your reference to
Mr. Hamids plea agreement made in open court on April 6, 2017 is wrong. He did not state that
degree program web sites [were] run by Axact. To the contrary, he stated that the degree
program web sites were operated by clients of Axact. See Tr. at pp. 24-26. Axact does not own
or operate any online education web sites or schools, and there has never been any evidence
produced to show that Axact owns or operates any such web sites or schools. No one has ever
claimed to have received a degree from Axact, stated they made payment to Axact, or submitted
a complaint naming Axact. Axact merely provides development and support services to
individual, institutional and corporate clients that contract with it for such services. If an
individual was able to purchase a degree from an online website, as you assert in your letter, the
degree was not purchased from Axact, and, if there was any wrongdoing associated with the
purchase of that degree, the owner of the website or the online school is responsible for it and not
Axact.

Moreover, the United States Department of Justice statement you quote about Axacts
alleged affiliation with fictitious schools, without providing the source for the statement, is
unreliable and wrong. The same types of allegations were asserted, tried and ultimately
dismissed in Pakistan. Those allegations arose from a false and defamatory article written by
Mr. Declan Walsh and published by the New York Times after Mr. Walsh had been expelled
 MILLER, CANFIELD, PADDOCK AND STONE, P.L.C.

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from Pakistan due to false journalism. See Enclosed Article. The allegations were wrongly
propped up by statements coerced from purported witnesses through threats and torture. See
Enclosed Statement. Ultimately, the court found that Pakistans Federal Investigative Agency
has not been able to produce confidence inspiring and substantial evidence to prove its charge
against the accused persons rather it has been found that the FIA has made a fabricated and
concocted story . . . . Judgment at p. 30, 61. The court, after considering all of the evidence,
acquitted all of the accused. See id. at pp. 9-10, 11 and p. 30, 62. The actions taken against
Axact were criticized by a Pakistani representative and legislative body, and were in the nature
of retribution by media competitors brought in an unprecedented and unjustified manner that has
caused great harm already to Axact and its employees. See Enclosed Resolution and Letter. The
resolution by the courts in Pakistan should be the end of this matter, and no further allegations,
such as those made by you in your letter against Axact or Mr. Shoiab, should be made.

Axact does not condone or support any alleged wrongful or fraudulent conduct by its
clients, who are independent businesses, if that has occurred or is occurring. While not Axacts
business, it does wish to point out that the marketing, selling, presentation and use of accredited
or unaccredited experiential learning degrees is neither illegal with proper disclosure. See, e.g.,
Oregon Rev. Stat. 348.609; see also C. Johnson, Degrees of Deception:Are Consumers and
Employers Being Duped by Online Universities and Diploma Mills, 32 Journal of College and
University Law, 411, 415 (2006) (Moreover, in most states, it is not a crime to obtain or use a
fake or unaccredited degree for employment purposes. While decried by most well-educated
professionals and traditionally-accredited institutions, the practice of substantially
crediting life experiences is not illegal.) (emphasis added).

Axact now asks that you exercise responsible journalism and not implicate it or Mr.
Shaikh for any role in any alleged wrongdoing by online web site owners or schools that may
have sold degrees as you have alleged in your letter. Axact will take legal action to stop the
reporting of any information via any medium that is false or defamatory about it or its executives
and work with the authorities to ensure that any such reporting is promptly stopped. We also
note with curiosity your statement that you have obtained business records from Axact, and we
ask that you describe those records and the source of them so that we can ascertain if you have
confidential and proprietary information that should not be in your possession. Axact is unaware
of having authorized any disclosure of its business records to you. Thank you for the
opportunity to review this matter with you.

Very truly yours,

Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C.

By:
Todd A. Holleman
 MILLER, CANFIELD, PADDOCK AND STONE, P.L.C.

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