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Denver Man Sentenced for Role In Scheme to Encourage Foreign Nationals to Obtain Fraudulent Student Visas
Distribution Source : U.S. Newswire

Date : Wednesday, July 27, 2005
To: National Desk

Contact: U.S. Department of Justice Affairs Office, 202-514-2008 or 202-514-1888 (TDD)

WASHINGTON, July 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Gaylon Dahn, the former president of Education Management Services of Denver, Colorado, has been sentenced to 48 months in prison for his role in a scheme that encouraged foreign nationals to acquire fraudulent student visas, the Department of Justice and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced today.

Dahn was sentenced this afternoon by the Honorable David A. Faber, Chief U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of West Virginia.

Dahn pleaded guilty on Jan. 6, 2005 to two counts of encouraging between 25 and 99 foreign students to reside in the United States, knowing that the presence of those students in the United States would be illegal. Dahn admitted that he took money from Middle Eastern students to register them at Mountain State University in Beckley, West Virginia. Dahn and unidentified associates then sold to the students school credits the students needed to maintain their F-1 student visas, even though they did little or no course work.

The criminal charges arose out of a contractual relationship between Dahn and Mountain State University which began in late 1999. Dahn, through his Denver business, Educational Management Services, recruited Middle Eastern students nationwide to enroll in correspondence courses at the West Virginia school. Although no school work was actually graded, Dahn hired instructors for the Mountain State University classes who were supposed to grade the correspondence students' assignments and then forward the final grades to Mountain State University. Dahn admitted that he took money from the foreign students and allowed the transfer of Mountain State credits to other universities, thereby allowing the students to remain in the United States fraudulently on student visas.

"Those who abuse our immigration laws for personal gain do so at the potential expense of our nation's security," said Acting Assistant Attorney General John C. Richter of the Criminal Division. "Rest assured that this Department will vigorously enforce our laws against those who facilitate the illegal entry of foreign nationals through fraud."

"Fraudulent documents can be provided to terrorists and other criminals, posing a major homeland security vulnerability," said John P. Clark, Homeland Security Deputy Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "ICE will continue working to restore integrity to our nation's immigration system by identifying and shutting down these vulnerabilities."

The sentencing is the culmination of an investigation initiated in 2001 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into allegations that Dahn was involved in a scheme to illegally bring Chinese students to a school in Denver. ICE agents investigating the activities of Dahn in Denver developed information that Dahn was also illegally selling grades to students registered at the West Virginia school. Dahn was convicted in October 2003 by a federal jury in Denver on federal criminal charges arising from the investigation into Chinese students.

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