The University of Illinois dean of admissions who falsified LSAT and GPA data did so to increase his own salary, a final report on the matter concluded.

Paul Pless, who resigned Nov. 4 as assistant dean for admissions at the law school, was found guilty of inflating grades and test scores of students in six of the past seven years to make incoming classes appear smarter than they actually were.

By tweaking the numbers and making each incoming class sound academically superior than the last helped him boost the school's ranking — and, in turn, his salary. Thanks to the increasingly higher median scores, his salary nearly doubled during his seven-year stint as admissions dean to $130,051, said the report.

The two-month investigation culminated in a 114-page report released by the university's legal counsel and ethics office, law firm Jones Day and financial advisory firm Duff & Phelps.

The report, which put all the blame for the faulty figures on Pless, said he exhibited “gross incompetence” in his job duties and found that he “knowingly and intentionally changed and manipulated data in order to inflate GPA and LSAT statistics and decrease acceptance rates.”

The school realizes it's also at fault for not checking Pless' math. Michael Hogan, president of the university, called Pless' actions “disappointing and regrettable,” according to a statement.

When the school was first called out in late August on the fact its stellar numbers smelled fishy, the false data was quickly erased from the school’s website and a lengthy $1 million investigation ensued.

Despite the fact the university “effectively self-policed” itself, according to the report, the school must start from scratch to repair its reputation as one of the better public law schools in the country. Inflating grades and standardized test data is misleading students being wooed and those comparing how they stack up to the current class. The numbers carry significant weight with the U.S. News & World Report, which uses them to rank schools.

“The college takes seriously the issue of data integrity and intends to implement the report’s recommendations promptly and comprehensively,” said Bruce Smith, dean of the College of Law at the University of Illinois, in a statement.

One of those recommendations is to create a monitoring and auditing program to make sure the school's internal controls are functioning properly and that all data reported to constituencies or other third parties, whether internal or external, are accurate and supported.

John Colombo, associate dean for academic affairs, has also been wearing the hat of interim admissions dean since Pless went on leave in early September. He's expected to hold the post through the school year and details on the search for a permanent replacement have not yet been determined, according to a university spokesman.