Thread: First student to plead in Chinese test-taking scandal deported

First student to plead in Chinese test-taking scandal deported

July 29, 2015 11:56 PM

Convicted Chinese national in test-taking scheme asks for deportation; U.S. wants jail


First of 15 Chinese charged in test-taking scheme pleads guilty to conspiracy


By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The lead defendant in a scheme by Chinese students to cheat on university entrance tests pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to his role as an organizer, and a second member of the conspiracy was deported to China.

Han Tong, 24, who gained admittance to the University of Pittsburgh in 2011 by having someone in China take an English test for him, admitted that he either took entrance tests for others or found impostors to take the tests, each time using counterfeit passports manufactured in China and sent to him in Oakland.

He pleaded to conspiracy, making and using a forged passport and wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti.

Later in the day, Judge Conti sentenced a second defendant, Biyuan Li, 25, a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston with a degree in finance, to probation for his role in the scheme and then immediately turned him over to immigration authorities for deportation.

“I wasted a lot of time and money for my stupid decision,” Li told the judge. “I will forever regret my decision.”

Two weeks ago, Li admitted that he paid to have someone else use a fake passport and pose as him in taking a graduate school entrance test so he could get into Carnegie Mellon University and other elite schools.

He and Tong were among 15 Chinese nationals indicted in the plot earlier this year in the U.S. and China.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Tong worked with someone in China identified as “Ada” to take tests himself or recruit associates to take tests for Chinese students trying to get into American schools using fake passports as identification.

“When Ada had a client who had contacted her to have a test taken for them, Ada would arrange for the test to be taken at whatever location she had personnel, like Tong, available,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney James Kitchen. “Ada also provided Tong with the contact information of a document maker in China who could create fake identification documents, such as passports, for use in defrauding the test administration service.”

The document maker used a picture of Tong or another impostor who would take a test but included the name and identification information of the person who was supposed to be taking the test.

A ring of five to seven test-takers took 10 fraudulent tests. Tong said he was paid $2,000 for each test.

Federal agents also seized seven fake passports.

Tong is set to be sentenced in November and remains free until then. His lawyer refused comment, but in court he said his client has finished three years of college at Pitt and is hoping to complete his degree at Ohio State University before returning to China.

It’s not clear what the U.S. attorney’s position is regarding that plan.

In Li’s case, he and the government agreed that deportation would be the best punishment.

“I have paid a heavy price for what I have done,” he said in court.

The judge imposed a term of five years of probation and released him to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for immediate removal to China. The probationary term would apply if he ever re-enters the U.S., she said.

Li, an only child of working-class parents who sacrificed to send him to study in America, was the first of the 15 to plead guilty.

He said his decision to cheat brought shame on his family and cost him his chance at the “American dream.”

Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com.

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/edu...s/201507290177

5/28/15

http://www.alipac.us/f12/15-chinese-...chemes-319872/