Credentials of academic nominated Italian premier disputed

Rome, May 22 (IANS/AKI) Giuseppe Conte, a law professor picked by Italy's Five-Star Movement and the League party to lead their nascent populist government "does not show up" in New York University's records "as a student or faculty member", a media report said on Tuesday.

Conte, a little-known Italian academic and a political novice, lists research at famous universities around the world, including Yale, the Sorbonne in France and NYU, where he said he "perfected and updated his studies" for at least a month each summer from 2008-2012, the New York Times reported.

Asked about Conte's experience at NYU, spokeswoman Michelle Tsai said: "A person by this name does not show up in any of our records as either a student or faculty member," according to the New York Times.

It was possible that Conte had attended one or two-day programmes for which the school does not keep records, she added.

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