Sam Eshaghoff

Sam Eshaghoff (/'eʃæɡɑf/; born July 30, 1992) 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.^[1] In 2011, he was charged with impersonation and related crimes in connection with charging students to take standardized tests on their behalf.^[2][3] His operations caused the College Board and the Educational Testing Service to reform the way that standardized tests are secured and administered.^[4][5]

Sam Eshaghoff
Eshaghoff in October 2023
Born	Samuel Ezra Eshaghoff (1992-07-30) July 30, 1992 (age 32) Great Neck, New York, U.S.
Education	New York University Stern School of Business (MBA) Zicklin School of Business (BBA)
Occupation	Real estate developer

Early life

Eshaghoff was born in Great Neck, New York to an Iranian Jewish family.^[6][7] His father Roland Eshaghoff is a home renovator and his mother Janet Esagoff is a real estate attorney.^[8] He was raised in Great Neck and attended John L. Miller Great Neck North High School.^[9] He attended the University of Michigan,^[10] later transferring to Emory University.^[11] He ultimately earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Zicklin School of Business in New York, majoring in finance and real estate. He later attended the New York University Stern School of Business.^[12]

Test taking

Eshaghoff was discovered to have been operating a test-taking enterprise^[13] while in high school whereby he charged students to take standardized tests, including the SAT and ACT, on their behalf.^[10] Reports estimate that Eshaghoff had taken standardized tests for between 7^[14] and 20^[15] students, charging between $1,500^[16] and $3,600^[10] per exam. Eshaghoff consistently scored in the 97th percentile or better.^[17]

Eshaghoff was arrested and charged by the district attorney of Nassau County for impersonation and falsification of business documents.^[18] 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.^[10] Eshaghoff was represented by Long Island attorney Matin Emouna.^[19]

Aftermath

Eshaghoff and the district attorney’s office agreed to conditionally discharge the case. Eshaghoff withdrew his attendance from Emory University.

Community Service

As a condition of his discharge, Eshaghoff was required to perform substantial community service^[20] in the form of tutoring.^[10] This tutoring included teaching SAT test-taking strategies to low-income students.^[1] He tutored in an Educational Alliance program at the Manny Cantor Center, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.^[21] He is the Chairman and President of the Board of The Brooklyn Bank, a nonprofit organization in Brooklyn.^[22][23]

Test Reform

In response to Eshaghoff's operation,^[24][25] the College Board and ETS were forced to make radical changes to the administration and security of the SAT exam.^[5] The College Board hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh^[5] to oversee test security^[26] and make substantial changes to test administration nationwide,^[27][28] including a requirement that students upload photos of themselves into a database^[27] and regulations on the types of permitted identification.^[29] The ACT exam, administered by ACT Education also underwent a major security reform.^[27] The College Board also began providing law enforcement and government agencies the names of people believed to be engaged in cheating.^[30] They have also considered alerting schools when test takers will be coming from other school districts^[4] and reducing the number of times the test is administered overseas.^[30] 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.^[31][32] The College Board has twice since made reforms^[33][31] to improve test integrity.

Media

Eshaghoff was interviewed for CBS’s 60 Minutes^[34] in an episode titled "The Perfect Score: Cheating on the SAT".^[34] The segment featured Kurt Landgraf, who was the President of the Educational Testing Service at the time,^[35] and Kathleen Rice, who was the District Attorney at the time.^{[citation needed]} The interview was conducted by Alison Stewart.^[34]

In 2013, the Lifetime network aired The Cheating Pact, a television film based on Eshaghoff's story,^[36] starring Daniela Bobadilla, Laura Ashley Samuels, Laura Slade Wiggins, Max Carver, and Cynthia Gibb.^{[citation needed]}

Real estate

Eshaghoff is the founder and Managing Principal of West Egg Development, a New York-based real estate development and investment manager. His firm is involved in projects in the Greater New York City area.^[1] His works include:

• 710-714 Wortman Avenue, the ground-up construction of 2 multifamily buildings in Brooklyn, his first known project.^[37] The buildings were completed in 2018.^[38]
• 22-80 Steinway Street, the renovation and repositioning of a mixed-use building in Astoria. The New York Times reported Eshaghoff's purchase of the property in July 2020.^[39]
• 102-110 East 53rd Street, the ground-up construction of 3 contiguous apartment buildings in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.^[40] These initially began as the single development of 110 East 53rd Street.^[41] The project was later expanded to include two adjacent lots.^[42] Eshaghoff's firm is also developing 76 East 53rd Street^[43] on the same block.
• 215-16 Northern Boulevard, the ground-up development of a luxury mixed-use building in Bayside, Queens.^[44] The building will have a mix of residential units, retail space, and sub-grade parking.^[45] The project was designed by New York City architect Gerald Caliendo.^[46]

Recognition

• Eshaghoff was named in the "2020 Ones to Watch" by the New York Real Estate Journal^[6] among "up and coming professionals as well as industry veterans across all areas of real estate".
• Eshaghoff is known for having developed and sold the first $1 million dollar homes in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.^[47]
• Eshaghoff's writing has been published in Crain's New York,^[48][49] Commercial Observer,^[50] and New York Real Estate Journal.^[51][52]
• Eshaghoff is cited as an expert development source in an article published by Bisnow.^[53]