U.S. Arrests Four Chinese Students in College Test Scam
In 2015 and 2016, three aspiring U.S. college students from China, who repeatedly underscored on an English-language college admissions test, paid a fellow Chinese student to take the test for them.
The scheme paid off, allowing the three students to gain admission into well-known American universities.
Federal authorities caught up with them Thursday, though, arresting all four and charging them with conspiring to defraud the United States. The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. The four also are subject to deportation after conviction.
The U.S. Department of Justice identified the impostor as Yue Wang, a 25-year-old student at the Hult International Business School in Cambridge outside Boston, and the three cheaters as Shikun Zhang, 24, of Northeastern University; Leyi Huang, 21, of Penn State University; and Xiaomeng Cheng, 21, of Arizona State University.
“Illegal schemes to circumvent the (Test of English as a Foreign Language) TOEFL exam jeopardize both academic integrity and our country’s student visa program,” William B. Weinreb, acting U.S. Attorney in Boston, said. “By effectively purchasing passing scores, (the students) violated the rules and regulations of the exam, taking spots at U.S. colleges and universities that could have gone to others.”
The TOEFL is an English-language test recognized by more than 9,000 colleges, universities and agencies in more than 130 countries. It is required of foreign students by many American universities and used by the United States government in issuing student visas.
The impostor, identified in the affidavit as “YY” and a student at the Hult International Business School, was identified and removed from the testing room by an investigator with Educational Testing Service, a nonprofit that administers the TOEFL.
YY later told federal agents that fellow Hult International Business School student Wang had paid her $100 upfront and promised $800 later to take the TOEFL in place of another student in China.
Wang originally had been hired to take the test but got scared after reading news accounts of test-takers being arrested, and instead hired YY. Wang later admitted to receiving $7,000 for taking the TOEFL on three separate occasions in 2015 and 2016.
In 2015, 15 Chinese nationals were found to have impostors take the TOEFL, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).
