US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Arrests President of Alleged Diploma Mill on Student Visa Fraud Charges

Posted May 5, 2011
By Tom Ahearn, ESR News Editor

In what may be one of the largest cases of a possible ‘diploma mill’ handled by federal agents, a two-year investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has resulted in the arrest of the President of an alleged ‘sham’ university – Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, California – on charges that include student visa fraud, money laundering, and alien harboring, according to a news release from ICE.

ICE is accusing the Tri-Valley University President of engaging in a “scheme to defraud the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by submitting phony documents in support of Tri-Valley University’s applications to admit foreign nationals on student visas.â€