Fake It 'Til You Graduate: The Honor Student Who Conned a Town

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Chameleon
Episode: Fake It 'Til You Graduate: The Honor Student Who Conned a Town
Host: Josh Dean
Date: December 18, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of Chameleon dives into the jaw-dropping true story of Arthur Samarin, a Ukrainian college student who reinvented himself as “Asher Potts,” a model high school student in Pennsylvania. The episode, hosted by Josh Dean, explores both the deception itself and the emotional, social, and legal fallout. Through primary reporting, archival audio, and interviews with journalist Daniel Riley, listeners are offered a deeply human look into the motivations, circumstances, and consequences surrounding Arthur’s elaborate con.

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Key Topics and Insights

Arrival and Reinvention: Asher Potts at Harrisburg High

• The Odd New Student ([01:06]–[02:24])

  • Asher Potts arrives as a freshman at Harrisburg High School, a mostly Black school, standing out not just as a white student, but as one with a Russian accent. He claims to come from a Russian Jewish community by the river.
  • “He was just sort of like a marginal new white kid at the school… also he didn’t speak English like all the other white kids, but he told them he was from the Russian Jewish community…” – Delia d’. Ambra ([01:26])

• Immediate Success and Local Fame ([02:24]–[04:04])

  • Asher quickly excels academically, joins ROTC, dresses in suit and tie, volunteers, and is celebrated for his achievements – even earning his own “Asher Potts Day.”
  • He begins receiving recruiting materials from colleges.

The Revelation: Arrest and Real Identity

• The Arrest ([04:04]–[05:57])
  • In his senior year, police storm into class, call Asher by another name, and arrest him; the community reels in shock.
  • The GQ journalist Daniel Riley is drawn in: “Asher Potts was not Asher Potts at all. That name was made up. He was actually a much older person, a man named Arthur Samarin.” ([05:57])

Arthur’s Real Story: From Ukraine to Pennsylvania

• Original Life in Ukraine ([06:39]–[07:19])

  • Samarin was an academically gifted college student in Kherson, Ukraine.

• Half-Baked Escape Plan ([07:19]–[08:32])

  • Seeks a J1 visa to work in the US, but ends up at a Red Robin in Hershey, PA, earning $9.50/hr and realizing US college is far more expensive than expected.

• The Potts Deal or Scheme ([08:32]–[11:41])

  • Arthur connects with Michael and Stephanie Potts, who purportedly agree to “adopt” him if he acts as a high school aged child, allowing both parties to benefit from social safety nets and keeping Arthur in the US.
  • “What happens is they start spending a lot of time together and then there’s sort of a deal… [they] will adopt Arthur if he pretends to be a high school student so that they can have the benefits of having this child, financial and otherwise.” – Delia d’. Ambra ([09:28])
  • Official documents are fraudulently obtained, including a backdated birth certificate and social security card; this eventually leads to charges for fraud for the Potts as well.

Collapse: The Unraveling of the Lie

• Crumbling Under Pressure ([11:41]–[13:02])
  • Arthur’s rising profile brings unwanted attention. The Potts allegedly grow anxious, treat him poorly, and eventually break by tipping off the police.
  • “It was when the material started coming from the universities… the couple, he says, was kind of feeling the heat of, like, you’re drawing too much attention to us.” – Delia d’. Ambra ([11:53])

Fallout: Legal Trouble and Accusations

• Escalating Allegations ([13:02]–[14:15])

  • The Potts tell police Arthur threatened violence at school, though no evidence supports this. However, the statutory rape charge (Arthur, aged 20, had a relationship with a 15-year-old while both were presenting as students) is real and serious.

• Public Denials ([14:48]–[15:05])

  • Arthur, from jail: “It’s lies. I don’t know why they do it. They should have honor. I was a cadet. It’s lies.” ([15:05])

Reflection: Media, Motives, and Psychology

• What Was Real and What Wasn’t ([16:25]–[19:14])

  • Daniel Riley and Delia d’. Ambra discuss Arthur’s intellectual passion and naiveté.
  • Discussion of “the American dream” — the idea of reinvention, ambition, and what lines are crossed in pursuit of opportunity.

• Integration and Camouflage ([21:16]–[22:50])

  • Arthur’s ability to blend in is aided by the diversity and size of public high schools, as well as his own merits and “good vibes.”
  • “He worked hard, volunteered, was in jrotc… It’s the idealized version of what we want our teens to be… So why would you ever question a dude like that?” – Josh Dean ([22:32])

The Gray Area of Fraud and Identity

• Who Did Harm, and to Whom? ([22:50]–[24:48])

  • While parents might be frustrated their kids missed out on opportunities due to competing with an adult, many also tried to help Arthur as his story unfolded.

• Arthur’s Return to Ukraine and Ongoing Aspirations ([24:48]–[30:53])

  • After his deportation, Arthur completes his degree in Ukraine, continues his education, and remains active and optimistic in online posts.
  • “Our brave PhD journey begins today. Behold, God’s with us. Full ride. Scholarship is ours. I’m happy. Above and beyond. Everything I only dreamed of becomes real. Thank you for always keeping believing in me, even when I was losing faith myself.” – Arthur Samarin, Facebook post ([29:31])

The War Changes Everything

• Russian Invasion of Ukraine ([31:07]–[33:25])
  • The 2022 invasion of Ukraine shatters Arthur’s life again; his home town of Kherson becomes a warzone and he posts desperate pleas online.
  • “My mother and I fled in hurry and in five minutes we were on the road… We saw bombers, we saw explosions. It was orange smoke on the left and the right where we were driving…” – Arthur Samarin ([32:00])
  • “Support Ukraine. Please pray for us.” – Arthur Samarin ([33:47])

Where Is Arthur Now?

• Disappearance and Uncertainty ([34:07]–[34:51])

  • After the invasion, Arthur vanishes from the Internet; Daniel and Delia hope he made it to safety.
  • “My like dream is that he’s going to send me a postcard that’s like I’m at Oxford or something… you found your way to the situation that you were looking for. There was a real kind of unbreakable spirit there.” – Delia d’. Ambra ([34:51])

• Update at Episode’s End ([35:40])

  • Daniel reports Arthur is alive, completed his PhD remotely, and is “alive and well” outside Ukraine.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “He was just sort of like a marginal new white kid… also he didn’t speak English like all the other white kids, but he told them he was from the Russian Jewish community…” – Delia d’. Ambra ([01:26])
• “He could be a Wes Anderson character.” – Josh Dean ([02:56])
• “Asher Potts was not Asher Potts at all. That name was made up.” – Josh Dean ([05:57])
• “We will adopt you if you pretend to be a minor… so that you can start high school over again.” – Josh Dean ([09:56])
• "It’s lies. I don’t know why they do it. They should have honor. I was a cadet. It’s lies." – Arthur Samarin ([15:05])
• “The thing that he was pretending to be wasn’t so far from the thing that he wanted to be most, which is like a scholar forever.” – Delia d’. Ambra ([27:56])
• “My mother and I fled in hurry… we saw bombers, we saw explosions. It was orange smoke…” – Arthur Samarin ([32:00])
• “There was a real kind of unbreakable spirit there.” – Delia d’. Ambra ([34:51])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:06] – Enter Asher Potts at Harrisburg High School
• [02:24] – Asher’s success and local spotlight
• [04:04] – His arrest and unmasking
• [05:57] – The true story goes national
• [07:19] – Arrival in the US; the J1 visa disappointment
• [09:28] – Deal with the Potts family
• [11:53] – Attention from colleges and the unraveling
• [14:48] – Arthur’s jailhouse denial and public statements
• [18:36] – Reflection on the “do-over” aspect of the con
• [22:50] – The line between real and fake identities
• [29:31] – Arthur’s upbeat Facebook updates from Ukraine
• [32:00] – Firsthand account of fleeing the Russian invasion
• [34:51] – Arthur’s disappearance and hopes for his future
• [35:40] – Episode update: Arthur reportedly safe, PhD complete

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Themes and Final Thoughts

The story of Arthur Samarin/Asher Potts is a uniquely 21st-century tale of ambition, deception, and adaptation. It asks uncomfortable questions about immigration, opportunity, the limits of institutional oversight, and the blurry line between aspiration and fraud. Yet, at its heart, it centers on an individual with undeniable drive—one whose spirit, for all its faults, embodies both the risk and hope of reinvention.

“He’s not wrong. Coming here from some unsatisfying place or circumstance and reinventing yourself. That is literally the cliched American dream.” – Josh Dean ([35:40])

Transcript

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[Delia d'. Ambra]

Hi, everyone. I'm investigative journalist and park enthusiast Delia d'. Ambra. And every week on my podcast, Park Predators, I take you into the heart of our world's most stunning locations to uncover what sinister crimes have unfolded in these serene settings. From unsolved murders to chilling disappearances. Each Tuesday, we dive deep into the.

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[Delia d'. Ambra]

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[Josh Dean]

Hello.

[Arthur Samarin]

What is.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

What do you want me to say? Chameleon. Chameleon.

[Josh Dean]

Chameleon.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Chameleon Weekly. So, fall of 2012, a new freshman shows up to Harrisburg High School named Asher Potts.

[Josh Dean]

This is Daniel Riley, a feature writer and longtime editor for GQ magazine. And he's talking about Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the state Capitol.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Nobody's seen him before, but that can be normal in high school where you're coming in from different middle schools and parts of the community. And he stuck out in a way that only made sense to me once I knew more about the school. The school is like less than 5% white. So he was just sort of like a marginal new white kid at the school, which always kind of made me laugh. And also he didn't speak English like all the other white kids, but he told them that he was from the Russian Jewish community that lived by the.

[Josh Dean]

R. The Susquehanna river, which cuts right through Harrisburg.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

It was just sort of like, okay, you're a new kid. I remember when, you know, strange new people showed up to my high school and you just kind of shrugged your shoulders and got on with it. So he started taking the classes that they signed him up for. Pretty quiet and reserved at first. Started succeeding kind of right away in the math and science classes and then ultimately even in the language and literature classes, even though it was clear that English was not his first language.

[Josh Dean]

So Asher Potts was a bit of an odd duck, maybe, but this 14 year old was smart, driven, and a force for good at a school that was in need of positive stories. According to U.S. news and World Report, 100% of the students are economically Disadvantaged.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

The school, which is one of the lowest ranked and most struggling schools in the state, identified him as somebody to elevate and support right away. And with the kind of winds at his back, he started wearing a suit and tie to school.

[Josh Dean]

You can imagine this, right? This quirky, heavily accented kid who seems so earnest and wears a tie and tries very hard. He could be a Wes Anderson character.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He signed up for the Naval Junior ROTC and really achieving, doing a lot of volunteer work. He had done so much kind of community service and good deeds that in his sophomore year, the mayor had called one day in October, Asher Potts Day. Like there was a lot of celebration of this young guy, Asher Potts Day.

[Josh Dean]

This is no small thing. Harrisburg is hardly a backwater. It's Pennsylvania's state capital and has more than 50,000 residents. If you consider the metropolitan area, which includes Carlisle, Pennsylvania, more than 600,000 people call this place home.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He started getting the thing that happens to some high school students where they start getting little mailings of saying, come check out engineering program. We have scholarship money.

[Josh Dean]

Meaning Asher's reputation as an excellent, well rounded college candidate was getting out. Schools began to recruit him, or at least they sent him materials asking that he consider their campuses and offerings.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

And so he was sort of pointed toward going to college. That was his main goal. And then I think it was February of his senior year, the Harrisburg police show up at the door of his speech class, call him by a different name, put him in the back of a cruiser and take him to jail. And the whole community kind of threw their arms up and were like, what is going on? And then a whole other story was revealed.

[Josh Dean]

This is Chameleon, the weekly show about people who pretend to be someone they aren't and all the ways that happens. And I'm Josh Dean. This week, the story of Arthur Samarin, a quirky Ukrainian who just wanted to go to space. But first he had to complete high school twice.

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[Josh Dean]

This is Chameleon, the weekly. It was the headlines that caught Daniel Riley's attention back in 2016 when a peculiar story from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania was suddenly all over the national media. Asher Potts was such a straight arrow that when a state rep tweeted a picture with the young ROTC cadet, she hashtagged it Going place, going to jail. It turns out Asher Potts was going to jail. Except he sort of wasn't. Because if you haven't already guessed, Asher Potts was not Asher Potts at all. That name was made up. He was actually a much older person, a man named Arthur Samarin.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Arthur Samarin, a Ukrainian young man from the south of Ukraine, has completed his second year of college at Kherson State.

[Josh Dean]

Kherson State University in Ukraine is where this crazy story begins. A port city in southern Ukraine which contains one of the country's oldest colleges dating back to 1917. It was also the nearest major university to Arthur, who grew up in the area.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He was pretty academically gifted and was feeling not particularly challenged at the college level, but knew that there was a way to apply for a J1 visa to come to the US to work.

[Josh Dean]

The J1, also known as the exchange visitor visa, is what visiting academics and researchers and certain kinds of guest workers use like nannies and au pairs. It's a short term visa and the one Arthur was on as part of the work group is only six months long.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

I think he thought that was going to allow him to stay and enroll in university here and instead he got a job at a Red Robin in hershey in Hershey, Pennsylvania. So he was staying in Harrisburg, about.

[Josh Dean]

30 minutes from Hershey, named for the chocolate bar that was born there.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He was taking the bus a long way to Hershey to go do this $9.50 an hour job and kind of frustrated all summer, like, oh, this isn't what I thought it was going to be. He also thought that university in the US would be comparable in cost to Ukraine, which I think is like $2,000 a year. Or suddenly was like, oh wow, this is not gonna happen.

[Josh Dean]

So Arthur's admittedly not super well thought out plan that he would come to America on a short term visa and work in casual chain dining while he looked for a college to take him Fell apart pretty quickly because that visa unfortunately expires.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

It's kind of running out of time on the J1. And then this is where it gets kind of murky. And there's very much two sides of.

[Josh Dean]

It murky because this is Arthur's telling of the tale. If it's not already obvious, Daniel spoke to Arthur a lot. So he got Arthur's version in great detail. And for what it's worth, Daniel is convinced that Arthur's version is pretty much the truth. But he's also very transparent that he was never able to speak with the case's other major players. A married couple with no kids of their own who took Arthur in.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

There was a couple living in the kind of housing that he was in for that summer.

[Josh Dean]

This was the largest apartment building in Harrisburg and one of the tallest buildings, period, six stories high. Daniel described it in his GQ story about the Samarin case as the most Soviet looking structure in town. He's not wrong. It would be the most Soviet looking structure in most towns. Anyway, the couple in question here is Michael and Stephanie Potts.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

And according to Arthur, what happens is they start spending a lot of time together and then there's sort of a deal that's hatched, which is that the couple will adopt Arthur if he pretends to be a high school student so that they can have the benefits of having this child, financial and otherwise. And then he gets to stay in the country legally, now that he is legally adopted.

[Josh Dean]

So basically, we will adopt you if you pretend to be a minor. More specifically, five years younger, so that you can start high school over again. This would, in theory, entitle the couple to certain government benefits like snap, also known as food stamps, and possibly even more generous health care and housing benefits.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Anybody who knows anything about how adoption like that works knows that this is not like a real plan or that it can't really work, but Arthur goes along with it.

[Josh Dean]

Again, the Potts did not speak to Daniel, but they did talk to some local Pennsylvania press back around the time of Arthur's arrest. And their story is different. Their story is that Arthur lied to them about his age and claimed that he was fleeing a terrible situation back home in Ukraine. The situation may be terrible now and we'll get into that, but it wasn't all that terrible when he left, so this is a little odd. Anyway, the POTS say they took Arthur in out of concern for his well being. It was, they claim, an immigration lawyer who advised them to put this alleged young boy in school. Potts also claimed that Arthur enrolled in high school at first under his real name, but then was christened Asher Potts a year later when he was baptized, which somehow allowed him to get a backdated birth certificate that was, of course, fraudulent. Their assistance in getting such documents, birth certificate, Social Security card, et cetera, is what caused prosecutors ultimately to charge the Potts with fraud. Later, Arthur would also get a passport so that he could go on a class science trip to Iceland. So whether or not Arthur was aware of it, he dug himself quite a.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Hole this whole time. There's sort of this ticking time bomb of, okay, you're not who you say you are. All this documentation you are filling out is going to come back to bite you. You're five years older.

[Josh Dean]

Because his good work, the grades, the extracurriculars, the whole Asher Potts day, means that colleges started sending him letters, real American colleges, courting him.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

And it was when the material started coming from the universities and Arthur started applying to these schools and stuff like this, that the couple, he says, was kind of feeling the heat of, like, you're drawing too much attention to us.

[Josh Dean]

Again, Arthur's telling, but he says the attention from colleges spooked the Potts, who he claims were also increasingly mean to him.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He also says, and again, this is hard to verify, but that they kind of had, like, a long list of chores for him, weren't treating him very well, made him make dinner, and then when he started defying that, they started getting frustrated. He ran away.

[Josh Dean]

Arthur went on to live with another family. The parents of a friend took him in. This was during his senior year, year four of high school 2.0, after three full years of pretending to be the Pot's teenage son. In the combination of Arthur leaving, plus the notices from colleges that were going to create more paperwork and a higher chance of the whole charade getting revealed. Well, it seems that Michael and Stephanie broke. They tipped off the local cops.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

That's sort of what precipitated them turning him into the police and revealing that whole story, seemingly without realizing that that would also blow back on them.

[Josh Dean]

But the Potts didn't just call and say that Asher was a liar and an adult. They put quite the dark spin on things. Here's a local TV station, wgal, with that story.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Today, Stephanie and Michael Ponce broke their silence, emotional at times and sending a.

[Commercial Announcer]

Strong message that Arthur Cimarron should not.

[Josh Dean]

Get out of jail if they let him out.

[Arthur Samarin]

I don't want to do another press.

[Josh Dean]

Conference and say, I told you so.

[Commercial Announcer]

Stephanie Potts stressed that Arthur Cimarron is dangerous and needs help.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Actually, what they told police was that he was threatening to shoot up the school. Like it became like a kind of red alert to the cops. There doesn't seem to be any evidence that there was any threats like that, but they were clearly just kind of fed up with the situation.

[Josh Dean]

Arthur vigorously denied the allegation that he was a threat to anyone, as did his attorney. And Daniel says there was no evidence to support this claim. The kid, by all accounts, was a good egg. A liar and a fraud, sure, but one with a decent heart. One additional quite serious charge did turn out to be true.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

There was a relationship with a younger woman that kind of created a whole second massive problem for him.

[Josh Dean]

Police say Arthur Samarin, now 23 years old, had sexual relations with a 15 year old girl in 2014. Now charged with statutory sexual assault. Arthur would have been around 20 at that time. So this charge that he'd slept with a minor while pretending to be a minor was more serious. His attorneys tried and mostly succeeded in keeping him from talking to the press. He did speak very briefly to ABC News by phone. Samrin has not yet responded to those charges, but earlier admitted from his Harrisburg, Pennsylvania jail cell he did scam the system to stay in the U.S. i'm.

[Arthur Samarin]

Here in this prison because I've done crime. I'm a criminal, unfortunately. But I love the United States. It's a land of opportunities, all of us immigrants.

[Josh Dean]

He also answered a few questions from the local media on his way into court one day.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

What are your message to the plots.

[Josh Dean]

And everything that they've said?

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Lies.

[Arthur Samarin]

It's lies. I don't know why they do it. They should have honor. I was a cadet. It's lies.

[Josh Dean]

If you missed that, he says, it's lies. I don't know why they do this. I have honor. I was a cadet.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He has time spent in jail and then they ultimately send him back to Ukraine where he reenters life there. And that's sort of where I end up intersecting with him.

[Josh Dean]

So Daniel heads off to Ukraine. That's after the break.

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[State Farm Advertiser]

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[Arthur Samarin]

Chameleon, chameleon, chameleon.

[Josh Dean]

This is Chameleon Weekly. One of the things that most interested Daniel Riley was something he had heard from Arthur's attorneys, who got deeply invested in the case in part because of what they saw from their client.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

They were defending him on the grounds that he had been deceived into the scheme. But they also were like, there's something very different and unique about this guy in the sense that he was reading Bulgakov in jail and wanted to like, discuss big literature with, like, the way that the brain was working. And that was very intriguing to me that on the one hand you had a totally naive fool that had fallen for this thing.

[Josh Dean]

Meaning I think that this young adult, a college kid, had either gone along with this manipulative couple he barely knew, or had even been part of planning this fraud and actually believed it could work. That he could just ignore the expiring visa, get a passport, and continue his life as Asher Potts.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Like all those dreams were kind of founded on, oh, you actually are exceptional at the math and the science and the language and all that sort of stuff. There's something real here.

[Josh Dean]

That's what locals saw in Asher Potts, in the story of this boy who'd fled terrible circumstances, who came to America alone at 14 and did so well that the mayor gave him his own day. It made people want to root for him and also surely helped them overlook any clues that he somehow wasn't legitimate.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

It was definitely one of those things where there was so much generosity and goodwill given to the situation. People wanted to believe that. Great, this is a positive story. What he was very good at always was these big dreams, having goals. Like he. He really knew that he wanted to get involved in aeronautical engineering. He wanted to work for NASA, he wanted to go to the moon. I remember he said something that really stuck with me. Like he wanted to be the first person somewhere in the universe. You know, like these kind of incredible, bold dreams that can sound a little cheesy, except when they're coming out of a teenager who's trying to get out of what they perceive to be rougher circumstances or whatever.

[Josh Dean]

This is not, in my opinion, that much of a head scratcher. I can very easily imagine a kid coming to the US from a less good place, whether that place is unsafe or unstable or just lacks opportunities. And assuming a new identity, I suspect lots of illegal immigrants and even some legal ones lie about their past to some degree. And if they see some chance to get ahead by making up a believable story, that just makes a lot of sense to me. Just as it makes sense that a kid like Arthur could easily be both very smart and very naive. It wasn't his culture or his language.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He came here to go to college, got stymied. There was running out of time, and suddenly there was a good idea here. And it's sort of like there were other moves he could have made besides let me go back and be a freshman. I remember when I was doing this, some people would say, that's the craziest thing. Who would ever want to do that? But some were like, yeah, it's everybody's dream to go back to high school, like, knowing what you know now. And I'm like, man, that is not my dream. That would be like a unique hell to go back to freshman year. But that was also kind of funny. I'm just sort of that idea of like, oh, would you do it differently if you had a do over? And in some ways, he did have certain skills, certain knowledge. Certainly. He was doing math and science. He had already done and so looked like kind of an accelerated character. That kind of took him out of some of the math and science classes and put him in a community college in downtown Harrisburg. He was going there for special classes and stuff. And so I just always found the goal very pure in the sense that it was like, I just want to have a sick engineering job. And the reason that I feel like it was pure, too is that after he was sent back to Ukraine, he went right back to the college that he had been before and completed his degree there, and then just kind of kept getting online degrees out of the us Advanced degrees within Ukraine, which was.

[Josh Dean]

The best Arthur could do, thanks to his exploits.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

The crimes had made it so that he couldn't just apply to a university in Germany or something like that. And so he was kind of hemmed in in that way.

[Josh Dean]

One reason Arthur landed softly back home in Ukraine is that he wasn't actually from a broken home. His parents were alive and well. Daniel was never able to interview them per se, but he did meet Arthur's dad when he traveled to Ukraine. They spoke only briefly.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He was a math professor at the college that he was going to. And they seem to have just been like, go for it. You know, it's very Strange. There was nobody sort of like, oh, I deceived them about what I was doing, or whatever it felt, felt. And again, I don't have them saying this, but it was just sort of like, see what you can do, you know? Like, it was sort of supportive of the general ambition.

[Josh Dean]

It wasn't ultimately all that hard to become Asher Potts, high school freshman.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He talked about his freshman year, I remember, and being really quiet, really just please let me blend in. Which I feel like is a very universal experience in high school, where it's just like, head down, don't get beat up. Don't make people think that you're a showboat that needs to get socked in the gut or whatever. And, like, he kind of did that, and then slowly kind of came out of his shell and became a little bit of a force on campus. There really seemed to be a thing again, that I remember from my large public high school, which was, like, very easy to not have people asking questions. You know, a little bit of an odd bird. But just walking around campus, you're just like, sure, whatever.

[Josh Dean]

This track's for me, too. I remember having guys in my large public high school with full beards when I didn't even need to shave yet. Those dudes could have been 22 or 25, I guess, but it never crossed my mind to wonder if they actually.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

Were just like, oh, that guy's really into hardcore punk and is, like, dressed like. But you're not, like, but is he 24 or whatever. It's just sort of like, yeah, sure, I can go to elementary school with him, but there's plenty of people who filter into here.

[Josh Dean]

Also, Asher just had good vibes. He worked hard, volunteered, was in jrotc. He was never, ever in trouble until he got caught. It's the idealized version of what we want our teens to be. Something they maybe once were in the 1950s. So why would you ever question a dude like that?

[Delia d'. Ambra]

One idea that I was really interested in was, like, in a fraud like this, where you are literally, where is the line between who you are and who you aren't? You were that person. You were taking those tests. You were making those friends. And then one day they say, oh, that actually was not a real person. It gets very interesting and kind of murky, and I think that's what a lot of those parents were doing. Where on the one hand, you could be scandalized and frustrated that there had been this level of deception, because here.

[Josh Dean]

Was an adult competing for the same awards and scholarships as your actual Teenage child, in one case, even dating a teenage girl.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

On the other hand, they were like, I spent a ton of time with that person. And one of them went and helped with the bail and stuff like that. And so there was an interesting way in which I'm sure many people were very frustrated that this could happen on the watch of the school and whatever. But there was also this side that was generously looking after him because he also had this interesting immersion into, like, American life and culture in this very quaint way that anybody would kind of fantasize about where he. He was, like, going to high school football games for the first time, going to the fall festivals, the carnivals, apple.

[Josh Dean]

Picking, riding roller coasters at Hershey park.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

All these kind of nice south central Pennsylvania experiences. And I'm sure in his mind it was like, this is real. And that's interesting.

[Josh Dean]

I think this is right. I'm hardly an Arthur Samrin scholar. I've never met the man, but I sorta assumed that Asher Potts was, in a lot of ways, basically Arthur Samarin. He wasn't play acting there was lying. He was already a high school graduate. But the thirst for knowledge, the desire to do good in the community, the genuine wonder over Friday Night Lights and all the Central PA cultural immersion, I suspect that was real. That's what Daniel thinks, too.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

There was no sort of, like, faking needed.

[Josh Dean]

Daniel had spent many months studying Arthur from afar, talking to his lawyers and people who'd known him in Pennsylvania before. He finally got to sit across from this fascinating, perplexing character and probe his story. This was October 2017 at Arthur's University in Kherson, Ukraine.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

It was interesting because he was very slippery. When you're talking to somebody who's like, I just lied for five years. It came very easily. And then they're telling you anything, you're sort of like, I don't really know what to believe here.

[Josh Dean]

Arthur's default mood is positivity. It's probably genuine, but it also made it hard for Daniel to plumb the depths of his emotions, to spelunk for hidden truths.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

I give a lot of credence to just the genuine nature of everything that he was saying. And I didn't feel like I was talking to, like, a total sociopath or something. Like, it just felt like somebody that got way out over their skis again and again and again. And I felt like a lot of sympathy and sadness when I was leaving that trip because it was sort of like, oh, you're back to square one. The thing that you went to crazy lengths to escape. You're literally there again, but now you have no opportunity to leave.

[Josh Dean]

Which in the context of 2025, knowing what Ukraine would become, is especially ominous. I was curious whether or not Daniel sensed regret in Arthur. Did he go through this wild experience in the US which included serious charges in prison, and then just go back to being a cheerful Ukrainian satisfied with his surroundings?

[Delia d'. Ambra]

I think that he was a little embarrassed, a little contrite, but also just sort of like, what am I supposed to do? I'm looking for any angle here to kind of get out of this situation and on to the next. And not in like a tragic way, just more of an enterprising way. If you're a person without institutional support, your kind of ideas are like, well, I have to put this on my back and build my own business, create my own luck.

[Josh Dean]

There is a sort of innocence underlying Arthur that reminds me of this old sitcom character, Balky from a show called Perfect Strangers. Balki was this fish out of water from a made up Eastern European country who came to live with his cousin Larry. And the laughs were mostly at his expense as he navigated this bizarre place called America. Who are you?

[Arthur Samarin]

I am Belki Partakumuz Philo. My fifth cousin, three times removed, is a step uncle to your father on my mother's side, two continents removed.

[Josh Dean]

I see. So we're sort of related by rumor.

[Arthur Samarin]

Goodbye, American cousin. Nice to meet you. Don't worry about me. I know where I'm going.

[Josh Dean]

Where are you going? I don't know. I can almost imagine Balki re enrolling in high school because he heard that you needed high school to get to college and you needed college to really make it in America. He could easily plot a path that can come across as dark without actually having a dark motive.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

The thing that he was pretending to be wasn't so far from the thing that he wanted to be most, which is like a scholar forever. It wasn't like, go back to your scam as a card dealer or something. It was like, no, no, no, of course, I'm right here at my university.

[Josh Dean]

Daniel's story was published in the May 2018 issue of GQ. Arthur liked it, he said, especially the interest from Hollywood in making a movie about him. Ansel Elgort at one point was going to play him.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

I do remember, and I think I end the piece this way. I feel like he was putting on a little bit of a show for me about how great everything was and how much kind of he had on the Horizon. And I'm going to, you know, do X, Y and Z. And I've got these online courses and I'm going to be in grad school and all that sort of stuff. And then once the show was over and he's walking back, like, I could kind of see the shoulders slump and be like, okay, is this here I am again.

[Josh Dean]

After the story published, Daniel and Arthur kept up sporadically.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

He would send me a Christmas card, a lot of emails. He was continuing his education. He finished up his bachelor degree at the college. He got an advanced degree. He started anything he could to expand that stuff, staying very positive. Send a picture of him, like hang gliding or whatever.

[Josh Dean]

There are also somewhat regular effusive posts on Arthur's Facebook page in English, seemingly intended for his friends back in PA and maybe also for the global audience that may have learned about his wild tale from media coverage. He talked about his academic progress.

[Arthur Samarin]

We had our awesome university campus. A new school year is at hand. A brave PhD journey begins today. Behold, God's with us. Full ride. Scholarship is ours. I'm happy. Above and beyond. Everything I only dreamed of becomes real. Thank you for always keeping believing in me, even when I was losing faith myself. Our first lecture starts in just 10 minutes. I best get going. Not to be late.

[Josh Dean]

He shared positive affirmations sounding at times almost like an AI.

[Arthur Samarin]

Arthur, my dearest family and friends, time of magic is at our doorsteps. Christmas, jingle bells, New year, the divine jabs. We've achieved yet another decisive victory. Behold. Master's diploma is ours. Although this was all but a mere preparation for a big game. Yes, we're going to earn a PhD title. How am I doing? While life's just peachy? House is clean and fridge is full.

[Josh Dean]

Speaking of AI, there was also techno optimism.

[Arthur Samarin]

Artificial intelligence technology has been keeping me up for many nights. Machine learning will be our golden age. So buckle up for the next chapter. After the doctor's degree is angel investing to the right assets. Anyways, our brave journey continues.

[Josh Dean]

Arthur had what sounded like a pleasant enough recreational life too.

[Arthur Samarin]

Hi everyone. What a wonderful weekend. The sun is bright. We head into one of our favorite national parks. Ask here we come.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

And then when Russia invades Ukraine, we spoke right after that had happened.

[Josh Dean]

This would have been February 2022, when Russian forces poured into Ukraine and started the devastating bloody war that continues to this day. Arthur's hometown, Kherson, was one of the first cities seized by the Russians. It saw some of the worst and bloodiest fighting of the war.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

And he was understandably scared, furious, asking for help and a kind of plea, I guess, thinking that I had some sort of access to a megaphone.

[Josh Dean]

He was, Daniel says, posting to Facebook a lot in those early days of the war. Those posts are gone now. Arthur's whole account is gone. But Daniel recorded some of them. Arthur's tone obviously had dramatically changed.

[Arthur Samarin]

Hello, my dearest friends. A terrible tragedy happened yesterday. On Thursday, at 4:20 in the morning, our city, our state, was bombed by Russian artillery and aviation. Many casualties. My mother and I fled in hurry and in five minutes we were on the road taking our backpacks. Ground was shaking. We saw bombers, we saw explosions. It was orange smoke on the left and the right where we were driving this offensive. Everything was vibrating.

[Josh Dean]

It's sort of hard to hear this, not specifically because it's Arthur, but because it's this person in Ukraine who had a stable, happy enough life and then suddenly didn't.

[Arthur Samarin]

This is terrible situation that's going on in freaking you Ukraine. We need to stop this. This is 2022. There's no need for this genocide. They're gonna treat us like, like Hitler treated Jews. They hate us. We're a successful country. We're a democratic country which you. We have chosen our path. We're a sovereign nation. We need to be left alone.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

I remember some frantic posts, just sort of like, how can the international community allow this kind of stuff? We need to join NATO right away so that we can put a stop. It was very grounded in correct international relations and diplomacy. If desperate and impossible for any of it to come true, we need to.

[Arthur Samarin]

Become a NATO member immediately. There needs to be a pass. They will not mess with NATO. They scared to mess with NATO. They not a superpower. They are a regional power. Support Ukraine. Please pray for us.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

And then I didn't hear from Arthur after that. And so I'm not really sure where he is right now or how it's been for him during the war. It's a very different kind of end to that story that I kind of just felt like it was like pushing toward maybe there will be a bigger opportunity here soon. And then obviously this enormous kind of tragic pause. My hope is that he's just been laying low, but it's really. It truly is hard to say. I do believe that Arthur left, but I don't know where he.

[Josh Dean]

Left the country. He means Daniel thinks Arthur and at least some of his family got out.

[Delia d'. Ambra]

My like dream is that he's going to send me a postcard that's like I'm at Oxford or something like that, you know, where you're just like, oh, you found your way to the situation that you were looking for. There was a real. A real kind of unbreakable spirit there. There's so much worship of that sort of individualist, entrepreneurial spirit. And I think that, like, some of these characters like that can just listen to founders talk for 20 hours a day or whatever. And his version of that was like, oh, I have to go create my own something. The initial flawed plan of, oh, I'll just get myself to the US and roll into Harvard or something. You know, there's kind of a dreamy quality to that that isn't founded on much, but I think he felt kind of justified in the ambition, which, you know, in many ways, and I remember thinking this is like a very American thing.

[Josh Dean]

I mean, he's not wrong. Coming here from some unsatisfying place or circumstance and reinventing yourself. That is literally the cliched American dream. Countless immigrants have come here, changed their identities, often not by choice, it's worth noting, and gone on to newer, more fruitful lives. But there is a process. And if you cut corners, if you, in a case like Arthur's, overstay a visa and commit actual fraud, well, there are risks to that. He probably deserved to get caught and even sent home. It's just that what that home became, well, it's a little harder to accept. I'm not sure anyone deserves that. One final thing. I got some news from Daniel. Just as we were finishing this episode at the tail end of 2025, Arthur had called him. He wasn't at Oxford, but he had somehow escaped Ukraine and finished his PhD remotely. He was, as Dan put it, alive and well. Whether he'd have a home to go back to someday, well, that remains to be seen. Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audio Chuck. It's written and hosted by me, Josh Dean, and produced by Joe Barrett. Our associate producer is Emma Siminoff. Sound design and mix by Blake Rook and Tiffany Dimmack. Theme music by Ewin Laitrimuin and Mark McAdam. Our production manager is Ashley Warren. Campside's executive producers are Vanessa Gregoriadis, Matt Sher, and me, Josh Dean. And finally, if I can ask a few favors before sending you on your way today, please rate, follow and review Chameleon on your favorite podcast platforms to help spread the word. I know everyone says this, but it's true. Ratings and reviews really do help, and if you have any feedback, tips, or story ideas, you can email [e-mail] or leave us a message at a special number We've set up, 201-743-8368. Dial plus one from outside North America. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

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