Sam Eshaghoff

Sam Eshaghoff (/'eʃæɡɑf/; born July 30, 1992) is an American real estate developer. He is the Managing Principal of West Egg Development, a real estate investment company known for development projects in New York. Earlier in life, he was involved in a high‑profile test‑taking scandal that prompted reforms to standardized testing security.

Early life Eshaghoff was born in Great Neck, New York to an Iranian Jewish family. His father Roland Eshaghoff was a home renovator and his mother Janet Esagoff is a real estate attorney. He was raised in Great Neck and attended John L. Miller Great Neck North High School. He attended the University of Michigan, later transferring to Emory University. He ultimately earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Zicklin School of Business in New York,

Real estate Eshaghoff is the founder and Managing Principal of West Egg Development, a New York-based real estate company focused on residential and mixed-use development in the Greater New York City area. The project was designed by New York City architect Gerald Caliendo and financed with a $16 million construction loan from Ponce Bank. He worked with Arthur Bocchi on developing a 400,000-square-foot cold storage facility near New Jersey’s Port Newark and a 75,000-square-foot condo project in Downtown Brooklyn.

West Egg Development's first known project involved the ground-up construction of 2 multifamily buildings in at 710–714 Wortman Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn, completed in 2018. The project was financed through a combination of personal savings, contributions from friends and family, and a bridge loan. These initially began as the single development of 110 East 53rd Street. The project was later expanded to include two adjacent lots. Eshaghoff's firm is also developing 76 East 53rd Street on the same block. The development was cited in New York Real Estate Journal’s “2020 Ones to Watch” list for its contribution to housing density in the neighborhood near Kings County Hospital. and several ongoing development work in neighborhoods such as Bedford-Stuyvesant and Rhinebeck.

Recognition Eshaghoff was named in the "2020 Ones to Watch" by the New York Real Estate Journal Eshaghoff's writing has been published in Crain's New York, Commercial Observer, and New York Real Estate Journal. Eshaghoff is cited as an expert development source in an article published by Bisnow.

Test taking scandal In 2011, 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. and 20 students, charging between $1,500 and $3,600

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. His operations caused the College Board and the Educational Testing Service to reform the way that standardized tests are secured and administered.

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 in the form of tutoring. He is the Chairman and President of the Board of The Brooklyn Bank, a nonprofit organization in Brooklyn.

Test Reform 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. and make substantial changes to test administration nationwide, including a requirement that students upload photos of themselves into a database The ACT exam, administered by ACT Education also underwent a major security reform. They have also considered alerting schools when test takers will be coming from other school districts The College Board has twice since made reforms in an episode titled "The Perfect Score: Cheating on the SAT". and Kathleen Rice, who was the District Attorney at the time. starring Daniela Bobadilla, Laura Ashley Samuels, Laura Slade Wiggins, Max Carver, and Cynthia Gibb.

The Rapid City Journal suggested that the premise of Suits character Mike Ross, who takes the LSAT for other students, echoed Eshaghoff’s widely publicized case, which had made national headlines shortly before the series debuted.