Ownership and Operations
The "university" was said to have originally been known as the College of Drugless Healing, which was traced by the United States government to a residential dwelling on Melrose Avenue. It operated strictly through a post office box and delivered mail-order doctorates without classes or exams.
The dwelling in question was that of "Dr." Joseph Hough, a chiropodist who had established a profitable business selling bogus medical degrees to applicants. Hough's own doctorate was said to have been bogus, reportedly having been purchased from the unaccredited Free University of Mexico in 1938. He was investigated in 1957 by a California State Assembly investigation into degree mills operating in the state, but took the Fifth Amendment 22 times in the course of his testimony and refused to divulge information about Sequoia's activities.
During a legal crackdown on unaccredited Californian educational institutions in 1984, a Los Angeles judge issued a permanent injunction ordering it to cease operating "until it complies with the state education laws." At the time it had outlets in both California and Oklahoma, and was still offering degrees in osteopathic medicine, religious studies, hydrotherapy, and physical sciences. Among the affected was the Federal government as evidenced by a citation proclaimed by the United States House of Representatives in hearings held in 1986, in which Sequoia was mentioned as one of a number of degree mills from which Federal employees had bought false credentials.
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