Samuel Ezra "Sam" Eshaghoff is an American real estate developer and former professional test-taker. He is the Managing Principal of West Egg Development, a New York-based real estate development and investment company. In 2011, he was charged with impersonation and related crimes in connection with charging students to take standardized tests on their behalf. His operations caused the College Board and the Educational Testing Service to radically reform the way that standardized tests are secured and administered.
Eshaghoff is the founder and Managing Principal of West Egg Development, a New York-based real estate development and investment manager. He is known for having developed and sold the first $1 million dollar homes in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn. Eshaghoff built the properties, located at 710-714 Wortman Avenue, in 2018. Real Estate Weekly first broke the news with an exclusive interview of Eshaghoff. The New York Real Estate Journal revealed in May 2020 that Eshaghoff's firm is developing 36-apartment project on East 53rd Street in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The complex consists of four sites that West Egg Development assembled in 2019-2020, including three contiguous mid-block parcels, and one lot on the corner of Winthrop Street. Eshaghoff is one of many developers to be known for starting projects in East Flatbush, including The Moinian Group, RiseBoro, Monadnock Development, and Dattner Architects. Eshaghoff is known to be developing a luxury mixed-use building at 215-16 Northern Boulevard in Bayside, Queens. The site was improved by a zoning lot merger and transfer of air rights from the property next door. New York real estate publicationTraded NY reported in January 2018 that Eshaghoff also acquired 2068 Story Avenue in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx with partners Sean Nasab and Ariel Moinian, nephew of renowned New York real estate developer Joseph Moinian.
Test taking
Eshaghoff was discovered to have been operating a test-taking enterprise while in high school whereby he charged students to take standardized tests, including the SAT and ACT, on their behalf. Reports estimate that Eshaghoff had taken standardized tests for between 7 and 20 students, charging between $1,500 and $3,600 per exam. Eshaghoff consistently scored in the 97th percentile or better. Eshaghoff was arrested and charged by the district attorney of Nassau County for impersonation and falsification of business documents. He was caught after prosecutors and ETS worked with school officials to compare students' SAT scores with their grade point averages, and conduct handwriting analyses. Eshaghoff was represented by Long Island attorney Matin Emouna.
Aftermath
Eshaghoff and the district attorney’s office agreed to conditionally discharge the case, provided that Eshaghoff perform substantial community service in tutoring underprivileged students. Eshaghoff was forced to withdraw his attendance from Emory University. In response to Eshaghoff's operation, the College Board and ETS were forced to make radical changes to the administration and security of the SAT exam. The College Board hired former FBI DirectorLouis Freeh to oversee test security and make substantial changes to test administration nationwide, including a requirement that students upload photos of themselves into a database and regulations on the types of permitted identification. The ACT exam, administered by ACT Education also underwent a major security reform. The College Board also began providing law enforcement and government agencies the names of people believed to be engaged in cheating. They have also considered alerting schools when test takers will be coming from other school districts and reducing the number of times the test is administered overseas. The announcement was made at a hearing of the New York State Senate's subcommittee on higher education, and Eshaghoff's methods specifically influenced the new legislation. The College Board has twice since made reforms to improve test integrity.
Media
Eshaghoff starred in a special interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes titled "The Perfect Score: Cheating on the SAT". The segment also featured Kurt Landgraf, who was the President of the Educational Testing Service at the time, and Kathleen Rice, who was the District Attorney at the time. The interview was conducted by Alison Stewart. In 2013, the Lifetime network aired :nl:The Cheating Pact|The Cheating Pact, a television film based on Eshaghoff's story, starring Daniela Bobadilla, Laura Ashley Samuels, Laura Slade Wiggins, Max Carver, and Cynthia Gibb.
