Artur Samarin, who used the alias Asher Potts, was arrested last Tuesday, accused of using a false identity to pose as a student at Harrisburg High School for nearly four years after his visa expired. The department reportedly received a tip about his ruse two months ago.
Now, Samarin is facing additional charges which include statutory sexual assault and corruption of minors, he is accused of having sex with students at the school, including a 15-year-old in 2014.
Samarin was on the honor roll, actively involved in the school, on a student advisory group for a food bank, and a member of the school's ROTC and Naval Sea Cadet programs. By all accounts, he appeared to be a model student.
New details have emerged about what he claims his motivation was for the scheme, though he is still being held in Dauphin County Prison.
"It was not my idea, I just want to let you know it was not my idea," Samarin told local station WHTM.
Samarin claims that his family in Ukraine were starving and very poor, and that his mother and grandparents had given him the last of their money to send him to the US to build a new life. He received a 3-month visitor visa in 2012, and got a brief extension with a tourist visa. When those expired, Michael and Stephayne Potts assisted him in obtaining a birth certificate and Social Security card with a false identity and, according to Samarin’s claims, they adopted him.
The couple, according to Samarin, then treated him as a servant and threatened to report him if he did not comply. He described the arrangement as "pretty much like a slave driver system … I was afraid … so I was cleaning the toilet, I was cooking for them, I was doing everything."
"No, I'm not regretting doing it. I have spent all of my free time on education…. I tried to do better for the society,” Samarin stated.
The police are investigating those who knew about Samarin’s real identity or helped to conceal it. More people are expected to be charged in the scheme. The adoptive parents have not been charged for their alleged involvement.
