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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    15 Chinese nationals charged in passport, test taking fraud schemes

    I.C.E. News Release

    DOCUMENT AND BENEFIT FRAUD

    05/28/2015


    15 Chinese nationals charged in passport, test taking fraud schemes


    PITTSBURGH — Fifteen Chinese nationals were indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of conspiracy, counterfeiting foreign passports, mail fraud and wire fraud. The charges stem from a joint U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) investigation.

    The 35-count indictment, returned on May 21, and unsealed today, names the following 12 individuals as defendants: Han Tong, Xi Fu, Xiaojin Guo, Yudong Zhang, Yue Zou, Biyuan Li (aka “Jack Li”), Jia Song, Ning Wei, Gong Zhang, Songling Peng, Siyuan Zhao and Yunlin Sun. The identities of the three additional defendants remain under seal.


    According to the indictment, between 2011 and 2015, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy and a scheme to defraud Educational Testing Services (ETS) and the College Board by having imposters take college and graduate school standardized entrance examinations, such as the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).


    In carrying out the scheme, the conspirators had counterfeit Chinese passports made and sent to the United States, which were used by the imposters to defraud ETS administrators into believing that they were other people, namely the conspirators who would receive the benefit of the imposter’s test score for use at American colleges and universities. The majority of the fraudulent exams taken by the conspirators were taken in western Pennsylvania.


    “These students were not only cheating their way into the university, they were also cheating their way through our nation’s immigration system,” said John Kelleghan, HSI Philadelphia special agent in charge. “HSI will continue to protect our nation’s borders and work with our federal law enforcement partners to seek out those committing transnational crimes and bring them to justice.”


    “The State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service is committed to working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our other law enforcement partners to investigate allegations of crime related to passport fraud, and to bring those who commit these crimes to justice,” said David Schnorbus, special agent in charge for DSS’s New York Field Office. “If criminal enterprises are able to manipulate instruments of international travel for profitable gain, then national security is at risk.”


    “The perpetrators of this conspiracy were using fraudulent passports for the purpose of impersonating test takers of Educational Testing Services’ standardized tests including the SAT, GRE and TOEFL, and thereby securing fraudulently obtained admissions to American institutions of higher education and circumventing the F1 Student Visa requirements,” stated U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton. “This case establishes that we will protect the integrity of our passport and visa process, as well as safeguard the national asset of our higher education system from fraudulent access.”


    The law provides for a maximum total sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both for each count of wire and mail fraud, 10 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both for each count of counterfeiting foreign passports, and five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both for conspiracy. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offense(s) and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.


    Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Kitchen is prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.


    An indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

    https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/15...-fraud-schemes

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  2. #2
    Senior Member Judy's Avatar
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    “This case establishes that we will protect the integrity of our passport and visa process, as well as safeguard the national asset of our higher education system from fraudulent access.”
    Really? Why this fraud and not others like filing false I-9 forms with employers to get a job? That is a much larger problem, tens of millions instead of 15.
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Chinese national charged in test-taking scam released on bond in Boston

    May 30, 2015 10:38 AM

    By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

    The only one of 15 Chinese nationals to be arrested following a federal indictment announced this week on charges of paying test-takers to pass U.S. college entrance exams was released on bond Friday by a federal judge in Boston and will next appear in Pittsburgh.


    Siyuan Zhao, 23, a student at Northeastern University in Boston since 2011, was part of a ring that the U.S. attorney's office in Pittsburgh said schemed to use fake passports so impostors could take the SAT, English fluency tests and other exams at various Pittsburgh locations.


    Eleven others in the case, including the lead defendant, Han Tong, 24, of Pittsburgh, were charged by summons and three others are in China, but federal authorities took Mr. Zhao into custody on Thursday at his residence in Revere, Mass.


    After a detention hearing Friday in federal court in Boston, a magistrate released him on a $25,000 bond on GPS monitoring and ordered that he be sent to Pittsburgh to face trial.


    Mr. Zhao is charged with using a fake passport, mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy.


    He came to the U.S. in 2011 and was admitted to Northeastern University but had to take an English fluency test to continue his studies. In March 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, he sent an impostor a fake passport made in China and paid the man to take the test for him at a site in Monroeville.


    Later that month, he sent the test score to Northeastern and continued to study at the school, where his coursework is nearly complete.


    Now, however, he faces a possible federal prison term.


    No date was set for his next court appearance.


    In addition to the 12 defendants named in the indictment, handed up under seal May 21, the identity of three others remains sealed. All three are in China and are believed to have been responsible for preparing the fake passports.

    http://www.post-gazette.com/news/edu...s/201505300153
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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